The Coming Water Wars: Technology’s Unseen Role in a Growing CrisisTechnology’s Growing Demand for WaterWater is indispensable to modern tec...

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The Coming Water Wars: Technology’s Unseen Role in a Growing Crisis
Technology’s Growing Demand for Water
Water is indispensable to modern technological infrastructure. High-performance data centers require massive amounts of water to cool the servers that sustain digital processes. In the US alone data centers consumed an estimated 626 billion liters of water in 2021, with projections indicating a sharp rise as AI models grow larger and demand ever more computational power. Training a single large AI model can require the same amount of water as manufacturing hundreds of automobiles.

Yet this immense demand remains largely hidden from public view.

The rise of cryptocurrencies intensifies the problem: Bitcoin mining alone consumes colossal quantities of electricity and indirectly drives high water usage by increasing the load on power plants and cooling systems. Estimates suggest that crypto mining operations contribute millions of liters of water withdrawals annually, often concentrated in regions already suffering from severe water stress. Unlike traditional industries, tech-driven water use is scattered, private and largely unregulated making it harder to monitor and even harder to manage.

Regional Impact and Emerging Tensions
The consequences are particularly severe in water-scarce regions. In the American Southwest, tech giants have constructed vast server farms that draw from the same groundwater reserves relied upon by farmers and local communities. In Europe, protests have erupted over the environmental costs of hosting data centers in regions facing drought conditions. In parts of Africa and Asia, where water insecurity is already a source of friction, the additional pressure from digital infrastructure risks becoming a destabilizing factor.

Historically water shortage has been a slow-moving crisis evident by the gradual erosion of agricultural viability, rural livelihoods and regional stability. The silent, accelerating drawdown caused by digital technologies could fundamentally alter the speed and scale of this decline. Conflicts over water have often been localized but as major global industries come to depend on colossal and reliable water supplies the competition may become transnational and corporate, complicating traditional notions of state sovereignty and international law.

Policy Responses and Their Limitations...
FULL ARTICLE: https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/05/27/ai-water-wars-tech-crisis/

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  1. I'm curious to know why data centres use so much water when they recycle a lot. I appreciate there are chemicals added to the water, but surely the majority of the water is cycled in the cooling system rather than lost needing replenishing?
    Can anyone clarify the range of % loss (or wastage) of water from data centres for me?