Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: While India is putting unprecedented efforts behind scaling its AI infrastructure, with massive data centres coming up in several cities, one core input which is being overlooked is the availability of fresh water.
The electricity part is being addressed by focusing on green sources – solar and wind – but the key question is, where is fresh water going to come from, in places which are already starved.
Recycling and redistribution of water may help but the view of an expert in this matter is telling. US-based AI-focused podcaster and newsletter writer Aakash Gupta says, data centres need fresh water. The reason, he says in a social media post, is chemistry.
He explains that Google’s single data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa consumed 1 billion gallons of fresh water in 2024. One facility. One year. Enough to supply every home in Iowa for five days.
Says Gupta, “The reason they need fresh water is pure chemistry. Evaporative cooling towers work by running water over hot surfaces and letting it evaporate. Eighty per cent of the water a data center pulls in literally vanishes into the atmosphere as steam. You can’t recycle steam.
“The remaining 20 per cent becomes concentrated mineral waste. Calcium, magnesium, silica. Every cycle through the cooling loop makes the water more corrosive. After enough passes, it starts clogging pumps and eating through heat exchangers. Multi-million dollar equipment destroyed by limescale.
“Recycled wastewater carries even more of these minerals from the start. You could treat it, but less than 1 per cent of US water is recycled. Most cities don’t even have separate pipes to deliver reclaimed water to industrial customers. A data center wanting to use recycled water would essentially need to build its own treatment plant on site. Meanwhile, municipal potable water costs almost nothing.
“So they just drink from the tap. Across all its data centers, Google used 8.1 billion gallons in 2024, nearly double what it used three years earlier. The company claims its water stewardship projects “replenished” 4.5 billion gallons. Those projects aren’t even in the same watersheds where they’re pulling the water. Same playbook as carbon offsets. Consume locally, offset globally, call it sustainable.
Groundwater specialist and IIT Kharagpur professor Abhijit Mukherjee told The Telegraph Online that, “South Indian cities will be worst affected by the rapid expansion of data centres, as south India has less accessible ground water compared to the rest of the country.”
“The trajectory is the real story. US data center water consumption could quadruple by 2028. That’s 68 billion gallons for cooling alone, before the 211 billion gallons consumed indirectly through electricity generation. Two-thirds of new data centers since 2022 are being built in regions already facing water scarcity.
Nobody’s asking why they use fresh water. They’re asking what happens to the towns sharing a water main with a facility that drinks like 50,000 people showed up overnight.”
Groundwater specialist and IIT Kharagpur professor Abhijit Mukherjee told The Telegraph Online that, “South Indian cities will be worst affected by the rapid expansion of data centres, as south India has less accessible ground water compared to the rest of the country.”
According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), a medium-sized data centre can consume around 3,00,000 gallons (11,35,623.5 litres) of water in a day. A 2023 University of California Riverside study found that 500 ml water is consumed by 20 to 30 prompts to ChatGPT.
“Most of India is water deficient,” Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator, South Asian Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), told The Telegraph Online.