The Data Center Water Wars

Written by Mauricio Preuss (CEO & Co-Founder) & Valentina Bravo (Managing Editor)

Reviewed by Aleksander Hougen (Chief Editor)

Last Updated: 08 Nov'25

Remember when “the cloud” sounded clean and ethereal?

Turns out, it’s incredibly thirsty.

Every time you upload a photo to Google Drive, stream a show on Netflix, or ask ChatGPT a question, you’re tapping into data centers that gulp water like a parched marathon runner. We’re talking millions of gallons per day, per facility.

And here’s the kicker: tech companies are building these water hogs in some of the driest places on Earth.

While you’ve been worrying about your carbon footprint, the AI boom has quietly triggered a new crisis. One that’s pitting Silicon Valley against drought-stricken communities from Chile to Texas.

Here’s what your digital convenience is really costing, why tech giants are getting away with it, and what (if anything) you can do about it.

The Real Cost of Your Digital Life

The numbers are staggering. U.S. data centers consumed 449 million gallons of water daily according to recent estimates ^[1]. That’s 163.7 billion gallons annually, or enough to supply more than a million homes. And those figures are climbing fast.

Large hyperscale data centers (the ones running Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta) can each drink up to 5 million gallons per day ^[1]. That’s equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.

And with AI? Those numbers are exploding. Each 100-word ChatGPT query uses roughly one bottle of water (about 519 milliliters) ^[1]. Multiply that by billions of daily prompts and you start to see the scale of the problem.

But here’s what makes this crisis different from the carbon emissions conversation: water doesn’t work like electricity. You can’t just generate more when you run out. And you can’t offset water use in Arizona by saving water in Oregon. As our cloud sustainability statistics show, the tech industry’s environmental impact extends far beyond carbon emissions.

Two-thirds of new AI data centers built since 2022 are located in high water-stress areas ^[2]. Places where people are already fighting over every drop.

So how exactly do data centers turn electricity into a water crisis?

How Data Centers Became Water Guzzlers

Here’s the thing about computers: they run hot. Really hot.

Data centers pack thousands of servers into warehouse-sized buildings, each one processing your emails, streaming your videos, and training AI models. All that computing generates massive heat. Without cooling, these servers would overheat and fail in minutes.

They need water. Lots of it.

Most data centers use evaporative cooling systems that work like a high-tech sweat gland ^[1]. Cold water flows through pipes near the servers, absorbing heat. That water then evaporates into steam and vents outside. About 80% of the water drawn by data centers evaporates completely ^[2].

“But wait,” you might be thinking, “doesn’t evaporated water just fall as rain somewhere else?”

Sure. Maybe in another state. Maybe in another country. Maybe hundreds of miles away. For the drought-stricken community that extracted it from their aquifer? That water is functionally lost.

A single 100-megawatt data center consumes about 2 million liters of water daily ^[2]. That’s equivalent to the water use of 6,500 households.

By 2028, U.S. data centers could be using anywhere from double to quadruple their 2023 water consumption ^[3]. And that’s a conservative estimate.

But where is this actually happening, and who’s fighting back?

Ground Zero: Where Digital Dreams Meet Desert Realities

Virginia: The Data Center Capital’s Reckoning

Northern Virginia didn’t become “the world’s data center capital” by accident. It’s where major internet cables converge, power was relatively cheap, and politicians rolled out the red carpet with tax incentives.

Now the state hosts over 300 operational data centers that consumed close to 2 billion gallons of water in 2023, a 63% increase from 2019 ^[1].

The backlash has been fierce. Virginia legislators introduced at least 33 data center reform bills in 2025 ^[4]. Most died in committee or got vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin, who sees data centers as essential to the state’s economy.

Meanwhile, data center companies were signing non-disclosure agreements with localities that classified even basic water usage information as “confidential” ^[5]. In one agreement between Spotsylvania County and Amazon, the NDA explicitly stated that “water usage, sewage usage, and basis of design is considered Confidential Information” ^[5].

Transparency? Not in this industry.

Chile: When Activists Take On Google

Santiago, Chile has been in drought for 15 years. The government has threatened water rationing that could involve rotating day-long cuts to different parts of the city ^[6].

So when Google announced plans to build its largest Latin American data center in the suburb of Cerrillos, consuming 7 billion liters of water annually (equivalent to the suburb’s entire 80,000 residents), people noticed ^[7].

That’s when Tania Rodríguez and the Socio Environmental Community Movement for Land and Water (Mosacat) stepped in. They organized protests, filed environmental observations, and pushed for a non-binding referendum. The largest share of voters opposed the plan ^[6].

After sustained pressure and a court ruling that Google hadn’t adequately considered climate change impacts, the company capitulated. Google switched to air cooling technology for the project, dramatically reducing water consumption ^[7].

Rodríguez’s activism inspired similar protests in Uruguay and earned her a spot on TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI list for exposing the environmental costs of AI infrastructure ^[6].

“We end up being everybody’s backyard,” she told reporters ^[8]. “It’s turned into extractivism.”

Brazil: Drought Meets Data Colonialism

In northeastern Brazil’s Caucaia municipality, 16 of 21 years between 2003 and 2024 saw drought emergencies ^[9]. Now ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) wants to build a $9.7 billion supercomputer warehouse there.

The pattern repeats across the country. Of 22 planned data centers in Brazil, five are located in areas that have suffered recurring droughts since 2003 ^[9]. The Brazilian Amazon, hit by devastating drought affecting 59% of the country in 2023-2024, is also being eyed for expansion ^[10].

Communities remain skeptical of sustainability promises, especially after Microsoft and Google admitted that significant portions of their global water usage occur in water-scarce regions ^[9].

Texas: Potable Water for Servers, Restrictions for Residents

In San Antonio, data centers operated by Microsoft and the Army Corps consumed 463 million gallons between 2023 and 2024 ^[11].

Meanwhile, local residents were under Stage 3 drought rules^[11].

Texas data centers are projected to use 49 billion gallons in 2025, jumping to 399 billion gallons annually by 2030 ^[11]. That’s 6.6% of the state’s total water usage. Unlike electricity (where Texas law allows cutting power to data centers during emergencies), no state law exists to regulate their water consumption during droughts.

The pattern of preferential treatment extends beyond Texas. In Phoenix, Arizona, Google negotiated a deal to pay $6.08 per 1,000 gallons while residents paid $10.80 ^[12].

With mounting criticism from drought-hit communities worldwide, what are tech companies actually doing about their water consumption?

The Water Positive Pledge: Green Marketing or Real Solution?

Between 2020 and 2022, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon all pledged to become “water positive” by 2030 ^[13][14]. It sounds impressive. Return more water than you use. Problem solved, right?

Not exactly.

Here’s how “water positivity” works: Companies offset their consumption by funding water conservation projects elsewhere. Microsoft invests in wetland restoration. Amazon helps farmers install drip irrigation in Chile. Google plants urban forests ^[8].

But water doesn’t work like carbon. A ton of CO2 removed anywhere helps the global atmosphere. Water is local. Conserving water in one watershed does nothing for a drought-stricken community in another.

It gets worse. Companies calculate water positivity based on direct operations only. They exclude the water consumed by power plants generating their electricity (often far larger than direct use) ^[15].

Microsoft reported that 42% of its water came from “areas with water stress” in 2023 ^[16]. Google said 15% of its consumption was in areas with “high water scarcity” ^[16]. Amazon didn’t report a figure at all.

And those pledges? They’re voluntary. No enforcement. No penalties for missing targets.

So if corporate pledges won’t solve this, can better technology help?

The Technology Race: Can Innovation Save Us?

The good news: technology exists to dramatically reduce data center water consumption. The bad news: it costs more, and adoption is slow.

Closed-Loop Cooling Systems

Unlike evaporative cooling (where water is lost to the atmosphere), closed-loop systems recirculate a fixed volume of water continuously ^[16]. The water gets warm absorbing heat from servers, then is cooled mechanically and recirculated.

Microsoft announced in December 2024 that all new data center designs will use zero-water evaporation cooling ^[17]. These new liquid cooling technologies operate in closed loops, dissipating heat without requiring fresh water supply after initial filling.

Dry Cooling and Air-Cooled Systems

Google’s Pflugerville, Texas data center consumed just 10,000 gallons in 2024 because it’s air-cooled ^[3]. Compare that to Google’s Council Bluffs, Iowa facility, which used 1.3 billion gallons of potable water in the same time period ^[3].

Air cooling works better in some climates than others. Low humidity regions are actually ideal for data centers (less corrosion risk), but those are precisely the areas with the worst water scarcity.

The Catch

All these technologies increase power usage and cost more upfront ^[17]. In regions with carbon-intensive grids, using more electricity to save water can actually increase overall environmental impact ^[18].

Data center operators face tough trade-offs between global climate goals and local water needs. Until renewable energy dominates electricity grids, there’s no perfect solution.

So if the technology exists but isn’t being adopted, what’s really going on here?

The Cloudwards Expert Take

Tech companies love to present water conservation as a technical problem with technical solutions. It’s not.

It’s a priorities problem.

When Google can negotiate water rates 44% cheaper than Phoenix residents pay, when Amazon data centers operate under NDAs that hide basic consumption data from the public, and when governors veto transparency bills because they might slow data center growth, the message is clear: corporate convenience matters more than community survival.

The “water positive” pledges are sophisticated greenwashing. They let companies claim environmental responsibility while continuing to extract water from drought-stressed regions. Offsetting water use in one watershed doesn’t help another. It’s accounting fiction.

The technology solutions exist. Microsoft proved closed-loop systems work. Google showed air cooling is viable. But most facilities won’t retrofit because it’s expensive and there’s no regulatory requirement to do so.

The real scandal is that data centers are built in high water-stress areas at all. These locations were chosen for cheap power, tax breaks, and fiber optic connections. Water availability was, at best, an afterthought.

What This All Means for You

Next 2-3 Years: The data center boom isn’t slowing. More facilities means more water consumption, especially as AI workloads demand more powerful chips. Expect escalating conflicts in water-stressed regions and water pricing increases for residential users as municipalities struggle to balance competing demands.

3-5 Years: We may see the first major data center shutdowns due to water shortages. Regulatory action is inevitable, though it will vary by jurisdiction. The technology will improve, but retrofitting thousands of existing data centers will take decades.

5+ Years: Climate change is making droughts more frequent and severe. By 2030, an estimated half the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas. The current model of data center expansion is unsustainable. Something will break.

So what can you actually do about it?

Your Water-Conscious Cloud Action Plan

Individual actions won’t solve this crisis. The problem is systemic and requires regulatory intervention. But you can make choices that reduce your contribution and support better practices.

Choose cloud providers strategically for business: Ask potential providers about their water usage. Request Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) metrics and data center locations. Favor providers investing in closed-loop cooling and locating facilities in water-abundant regions.
Optimize your AI usage: Every ChatGPT conversation consumes water. Ask yourself if you really need AI for a task or if a search engine would suffice. Use AI for high-value tasks, not casual browsing.
Reduce cloud storage waste: Delete old files you don’t need. That 5GB of photos from 2016 you’ve never looked at? Each file stored requires servers staying cool.
Stream smarter: Download content for offline viewing when possible. Lower video quality for background watching. One 4K stream uses significantly more server resources than standard definition.
Support transparency initiatives: When companies voluntarily disclose water usage, acknowledge it publicly. When they hide behind NDAs, call it out.
Vote with your voice on local data center proposals: If your community is considering a data center, attend public hearings. Ask tough questions about water consumption. Demand environmental impact assessments and public disclosure of usage data.
Advocate for regulation: Contact your representatives about data center water use. Support legislation requiring consumption caps during droughts, mandatory disclosure, and prohibition of preferential corporate water rates.

The Bottom Line

The cloud was supposed to make computing cleaner. Instead, we’ve created an industry that’s literally draining communities dry.

The technology to fix this exists. Closed-loop cooling works. Air-cooled systems are viable. But as long as water remains cheap and companies face no consequences for using it, nothing will change.

Tech companies will keep building in deserts. Governments will keep offering tax breaks. And communities will keep losing access to water while being told that economic development requires sacrifice.

The question isn’t whether we can reduce data center water consumption. We absolutely can. The question is whether we’ll force companies to do it before the wells run dry.