As AI data centers rapidly expand across the globe, a growing concern is beginning to surface: their immense thirst for water.
A recent report by The New York Times highlights the issue through the experience of residents in Newton County, Georgia, where Meta has constructed one of its major data center sites.
The facility, which began construction in 2018, is located just 1,000 feet from the home of Beverly and Jeff Morris. Within a year of ground being broken, the couple found their well running dry. While Meta maintains that its operations are not responsible, The NYT article, written by Eli Tan, suggests the issue is broader and more systemic.
“As tech giants like Meta build data centers in the area, local wells have been damaged, the cost of municipal water has soared and the county’s water commission may face a shortage of the vital resource.”
The Newton County site alone uses around 500,000 gallons of water daily. But this figure may be modest compared to upcoming data centers in other locations, where permit applications have requested millions of gallons per day.
And Newton County is not alone. Similar strains on water infrastructure have been reported in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and even the United Arab Emirates. The underlying challenge lies in the enormous and ongoing water requirements of these facilities, the needs that can easily outstrip local resources.
“Water is an afterthought” for tech companies, says Stanford hydrologist Newsha Ajami. “The thinking is, ‘Someone will figure that out later.’”
As AI continues to grow, the environmental footprint of the technology, and the hidden cost of cooling the servers that power it, is becoming harder to ignore.
Shongjog 