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New Delhi: Over the past few years, India has seen tremendous growth in the data center industry as the Government of India, as well as the private sector, has heavily invested in digital infrastructure growth. The modern data center across the country is in demand due to the advent of AI, cloud computing, online banking, digital payment systems, e-commerce, and the government’s digital services.
Many technology giants, cloud services, and Indian businesses are investing a huge sum of billions of rupees in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat. Though these investments are likely to provide jobs, help in strengthening the digital economy, and bring foreign investments to India, it is important to ask what amount of water these facilities will consume and what it means to the residents of these states.
Data centers are high-rise buildings fitted with thousands of servers that are on duty around the clock. These servers are extremely hot and need very strong cooling mechanisms. Water is an important resource necessary for the daily function of many modern facilities, which are water-based filter cooling systems.
Industry estimates suggest that cooling a medium to large-sized data center consumes 500,000 to 5 million liters of water per day in a range determined by data center size, cooling technology, weather, workload, etc. Even more during peak use in some of the biggest hyperscale data centers in the world. Water usage from the data centers can potentially reach hundreds of millions of liters per day, if full data center cooling is used, as the total capacity of data centers is projected to reach 3 gigawatts (GW) in India in the near future.
It will depend on state to state. The Maharashtra region, which is home to the largest data center market in the country near Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, has a big potential for water consumption. Other states such as Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat are emerging as major destinations as well, owing to the government’s support for digital infrastructure, better Internet connections, and reliable power supplies. A few of these states have, however, already been facing water scarcity during some months. Due to the increasing population in urban centers, altered precipitation, and increased household and industrial water needs, cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad have experienced multiple water stress events.
With the continued emphasis placed on freshwater use by new data centers, experts estimate that there could be a possible increase in competition for water in some areas in the future. Based upon average domestic water use, one facility with approximately 3 million liters per day could use water that equals approximately 15,000 to 30,000 people per day. While water is allocated using government decisions, water supplies may be affected by the growing need for water for industries, particularly if it is a period of drought or low rainfall.
The impacts on everyday people might not be direct, but as industries grow, they may introduce strain on municipal water supplies. In the water-stressed regions, the government may be required to increase water management efficiency, increase reservoir sizes, upgrade pipelines, minimize pipeline leakage, and bring the use of treated wastewater to scale to provide water supply to its households. States should also be investing in new water supply facilities such as sewage treatment plants, rainwater catchment schemes, Recycled Water Systems, and Groundwater Recharge strategies. Companies might need to use treated or reused wastewater instead of freshwater, where possible, if they want to continue approvals for new large data centers in the future, experts say.
Many data center operators have already started adopting water-saving measures. Some of these include advanced cooling systems, closed-loop cooling systems, rainwater catchment, wastewater recycling, and AI systems that optimize cooling performance and water consumption. A handful of companies have partially implemented new air cooling and liquid cooling technologies that use much less water than traditional options. While various environmental provisions encourage sustainable infrastructure by the Central government, there is no national environmental policy yet to ensure that extra household water facilities will be created due to the growth of data centers. Governments instead are focusing on improving general water infrastructure and pressuring industries and companies to save freshwater by implementing more stringent environmental approvals and implementing more recycled water.
The future of data centers is pivotal as India strives to become a digital powerhouse in the world, playing a key role in the growth of AI, cloud, and emerging technologies. Meanwhile, water security will be one of the greatest challenges facing the country as it works to ensure digital growth doesn’t lead to a compromise on water security. For the proper balance of economic growth and responsible water management, experts feel that cooperation between the governments, technology companies, and local communities would be essential to ensure the preservation of one of India’s most precious natural resources.
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