Amazon, Google, and Microsoft Use Tons of Water in Already Arid Regions of the World
Kyiv • UNN
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are increasing the number of data centers in regions that are already suffering from water shortages. Companies plan to expand their operations, which may affect the local population.
Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building data centers that use large amounts of water in some of the world's already driest regions. Tech giants plan to build hundreds more of their centers, potentially having a huge impact on populations living in water-scarce conditions. This is reported by UNN with reference to TheGuardian.
Details
Data centers are huge warehouses containing networked servers used for remote storage and processing of data, as well as information technology companies for training AI models. They use water to cool their systems.
The location of data centers is often an industry secret, but a SourceMaterial investigation has revealed 38 active centers of the big three technology companies that are already facing water shortages.
SourceMaterial, together with Baxtel and Data Center Map, also compiled a map of 632 data centers - active or under development - owned by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
This indicates that these companies' plans involve increasing the number of data centers around the world by tens of times. According to an analysis by SourceMaterial and the Guardian, these companies plan to expand their operations in some of the most arid regions of the world.
It is no coincidence that they are building in arid areas, as data centers need to be built inland, where low humidity reduces the risk of metal corrosion, and seawater also causes corrosion if used for cooling
In parts of the world where water is plentiful, the high water use by data centers is not as problematic. But in 2023, Microsoft acknowledged that 42% of the water comes to their centers from "water-stressed areas." Google then said it consumed only 15% of its required water volume in "high water-stressed" areas. Amazon did not disclose the figures.
Currently, representatives from Amazon and Google have said that they always take water scarcity into account. Microsoft declined to comment.
Water accounting
Amazon does not provide overall data on the water used by its data centers worldwide. But it claims that by 2030 it will offset its consumption by providing water to communities and ecosystems in other water-scarce areas.
Amazon says it is currently offsetting 41% of its water use in areas it considers arid. But this is an approach that has already sparked controversy within the company.
I raised in all the right places the issue that this is unethical. I strongly disagreed with this principle, which stems from a purely sustainable background
Microsoft and Google have also pledged to offset their water use by 2030, as well as find ways to use water more efficiently. But whether this will save the situation on a global scale remains a controversial question.
Water compensation cannot work in the same way as carbon compensation, where a ton of pollutants removed from the atmosphere can compensate for tons emitted elsewhere. Improving access to water in one area does not help a community that has lost access to it far away
Additionally
Amazon is the largest owner of data centers in the world through its cloud division Amazon Web Services, but Google and Microsoft are catching up.
In the United States, which boasts the largest number of data centers in the world, Google is more likely to build its centers in arid areas. The company has seven active data centers in parts of the US that are facing water shortages, and is building six more, according to SourceMaterial data.
