7 ms·
The Water Footprint of AI
- sceptic123 2mo agoWho could have guessed this would end up with many polarised "massive problem" / "not a problem" comments
- throwfaraway135 2mo agoI agree that water is an important resource but the wording of "consumption" always rubbed me the wrong way. Is the water contaminated with chemicals? Maybe heat? Can people or wildlife consume it? Can you use rainwater?
- 113 2mo agoYou can't drink it once it's gone through a bunch of mouldy pipes, no.
- swiftcoder 2mo ago> I agree that water is an important resource but the wording of "consumption" always rubbed me the wrong way While the Earth is (mostly[1]) a closed system when it comes to water, any particular region on Earth is not a closed system with respect to clean drinking water. Deplete groundwater reserves faster than they refill? No more water for you. Raise the ambient temperature far enough that the rainclouds go somewhere cooler? No more water for you. As long as your usage is below the replacement rate, all seems well. Imbalance the system, and you have indeed "consumed" your local water supply. > Is the water contaminated with chemicals? Maybe heat? Typically yes. Definitely yes. > Can people or wildlife consume it? With enough water purification infrastructure, sure. I'm not aware of very many datacenters installing such infrastructure. > Can you use rainwater? It's all rainwater, whether directly or indirectly. The question is what would have benefited from that rainwater had it not been redirected to a datacenter? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape
- tempfile 2mo ago> Imbalance the system, and you have indeed "consumed" your local water supply. Right, but this is not what is reported by "water consumption". It would be much better to have some kind of index (probably multiple) that estimates how close a particular feature of the water system is to a problem. Is the temperature too high, is there too high a concentration of some contaminant, etc etc.
- swiftcoder 2mo ago> this is not what is reported by "water consumption" You are make a semantic distinction here, but "consumptive use" is a term of art in modelling water usage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumptive_water_use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumptive_water_use
- d1sxeyes 2mo agoYes but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumptive_water_use#:~:text=Evaporation%20from%20the,from%20this%20model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumptive_water_use#:~:text=...
- tempfile 2mo agoI am not! You said that there are certain tipping points which, when reached, mean that your local water source might be "consumed" - meaning it does not regenerate and goes away permanently. By contrast, in the link you gave (and everywhere else), water consumption means that you used some water. It doesn't say anything about whether you are near a tipping point. They are totally different concepts!
- pcl 2mo ago”AI's global water footprint could reach 4.2–6.6 billion cubic meters by 2027” This is about as much as the annual consumption of the California almond farms. (An acre-foot is approximately 1200 cubic meters.) https://www.c-win.org/cwin-water-blog/2022/7/11/california-almond-water-usage https://www.c-win.org/cwin-water-blog/2022/7/11/california-a...
- tempfile 2mo agoThis comparison sounds to me like it is downplaying the significance of the numbers. California's almond-growing is another gross environmental crime, which is regularly controversial in California.
- bigDinosaur 2mo agoThat's because the Californian almond industry is exclusively located in California, unlike the global data centre industry.
- Intralexical 2mo agoThe Californian almond industry has had over 100 years to develop. The AI data centre industry has had 4.
- bryanrasmussen 2mo agoAnd imagine, it's already at the water usage of an industry that had a 100 years to develop. Great strides!
- bigDinosaur 2mo agoThis is not even an argument. 100 years? So you're admitting that almonds in California are clearly a sustainable industry that can exist in the long term.
- eesmith 2mo agoSince California produces about 80% of the world's almonds, it also means that the global water footprint for almonds is about the same as the global water footprint for AI. More directly, a global analysis does not mean the AI data centers are evenly distributed around the world. From the article: "A Bloomberg analysis suggests about two-thirds of data centers built or planned since 2022 are water-stressed regions, concentrated in Australia, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Saudi-Arabia, and the US Southwest (Nicoletti et al., 2025). Within the United States, Texas hosts over 400 data centers projected to consume nearly 3% of statewide water supply by 2030 (Martinez, 2025), in a state grappling with recurring drought conditions and aquifer depletion." "Corporate sustainability reports confirm this concentration: approximately 42% of Microsoft's water consumption occurs in water-stress regions, and 15% of Google's water use is concentrated in high water-scarcity areas (Barratt et al., 2025)." Comparing water-stressed regions in California for almond production to water-stressed regions used for data centers does seem relevant.
- exizt88 2mo agoWater consumption of AI is a non-issue. Why even spend research and policymaking resources on this?
- sevenzero 2mo agoMisconception of the year. If you can guarantee the steam it produces rains down in areas that actually re-join the water cycle easily, you might be right (even though you still have to cover the just in time demand). You can not guarantee that though. Best regards, European person where lakes dry out atm.
- boxed 2mo agoI think you mean "re-join the FRESHWATER cycle"? Because obviously it rejoins the global water cycle.
- perks_12 2mo agoThey are not drying up because of AI datacenters and especially not because of European datacenters. While man-made climate change is undoubtedly real, the yearly "our lakes dry up"-media cycle is not proof of it at all. Check if the return to normal in November will make the news.
- woodpanel 2mo ago"Our lakes run dry" is a meme at this point. Apparently the doomers entirely forgot their kvetching about Lago di Garda drying out a couple of years ago. Memory-holed doesn't even closely describe this sort of behavior.
- sevenzero 2mo ago>They are not drying up because of AI datacenters I am aware and never claimed that. Though, the global push towards mega factories, data centers and whatnot does not help the situation. Lots of places here in Germany already struggle with having enough water, so the mindset to "lets just build a Tesla mega factory here" is something I never understood. Can't be that different for data centers. We should use our resources smartly, not for profit margins.
- shaky-carrousel 2mo agoThe issue with AI datacenters was never about water. Water is an easily dismissable strawman that sloppers love to bring on. The real issue with AI datacenters is the huge amounts of wasted energy, after decades of energy efficiency efforts.
- elil17 2mo agoAdditionally, using more water allows datacenters to be more energy efficient because evaporative cooling uses less energy than dry cooling. Datacenters outside of water stressed areas should absolutely being using water because doing so is better for the environment.
- trolleski 2mo agoThe eagerness of the corps to switch from "we're all green" to 'fuck Earth with AI' is stunning. I was always suspicious towards the 'corporate left' but this one takes the cake. We must never trust those people again.
- Gracana 2mo agoWhat influence do you have over these companies where your trust or distrust matters? [edit] This is an awfully pessimistic take. Even if these companies will largely do whatever they like, some of us can at least make choices to use alternatives. That is probably what you were getting at.
- trolleski 2mo agoIt is a very good point. We can split monopolies, and oligopolies, we can tax their owners, we can prevent and put under scrutiny any gov related spending going into those companies. No one cares whether you buy their stuff, just look at the products quality - they're on an entirety different endeavor altogether.
- karmakurtisaani 2mo agoWho the hell is the 'corporate left'?
- garciaperales 2mo agocf
- cannonpr 2mo agoDid we somehow mass build pure lossy evaporatively cooled data-centres in the AI era while I was asleep ? Most of them im familiar with lose at best 3-4% of their water per day due to recovery systems even when they are evaporative or open loop to a lake. Yet nearly everyone I hear talking about this seems to treat it as if they lose 100% of their water loop contents per day as if it’s a matter-antimatter destruction system…
- woodpanel 2mo agoOne can criticize ai data centers but the "water consumption"-argument is by far the least-intelligent one and on track on becoming the same kind of populist urban myth that got Germany cancelling (ie destroying) its nuclear plants in order to... checks notes.... save the world.
- Intralexical 2mo agoThe systems used for LLMs are several times more power-hungry than traditional servers. Like, 50-100kW per rack of B200s.
- cannonpr 2mo agoI’m familiar with datacentres, I’ve helped build a few, so I kept up with the new systems, they still aren’t that lossy last time I checked their specs.. however obviously I don’t have access to all the designs popping up in this mad rush.
- swiftcoder 2mo agoThe last datacenter I stepped inside (an FB datacenter in the southwest), they were very proud of how the whole thing operated as a giant swamp cooler. Unclear how they could have been limiting their losses all that much, given the evaporative stacks were open to the outside breeze
- MASNeo 2mo agoI stumbled on that as well. I thought that water is used to cool but not consumed such as oil is - even I see the ecosystem problem of warm waste water. However, what doesn’t remove drinking water, right? Even if the water evaporates, it will enter the ecosystem as such and eventually end up as liquid water again. Or am I totally mistaken?
- nmeofthestate 2mo ago0.16% (high estimate) of global water usage by the way.
- quikoa 2mo agoThis statistic doesn't show the disproportionate effect it may have on local communities close to these AI datacenters.
- TSiege 2mo agoWhether or not you think water use is bad for AI, another aspect hard to ignore with it is that the closed loop systems are mixing PFAs into the water for closed loop systems https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/04/pfas-pollution-data-centers-ai https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/04/pfas-pol...
- xtiansimon 2mo agoIt’s always backwards presumption: “No testing for Pfas air or water pollution has yet been done, and companies are not required to report the volume of chemicals they use or discharge.”
- fragmede 2mo agoI'm probably being dense, but if it's closed loop, why is that a problem?
- dpoloncsak 2mo agoNot the original commenter, but assuming its something along the lines of "PFAs are forever chemicals and using them in a data center is going to eventually cause issues when these data centers are taken down and the PFAs stil need to be dealt with"
- TSiege 2mo agoNot to mention leaks or other discharging and it enters ground water
- tempfile 2mo agoHow long do you think the loop will remain closed? 10 years? 100 years? 1000 years?
- felooboolooomba 2mo agoCan someone explain why the data centers are using this insane amount of water. What's the ratio of closed system, evaporation?, and straight-down-the-drain water?
- t0mas88 2mo agoThe water use is for cooling and sometimes includes indirect use for electricity generation. But before you call it "insane amounts of water" consider that the 700.000 liters quoted for training GPT-3 is less than 1 time spraying a 9 acres field, which is the size of a tiny hobby farm not a real farm.
- karmakurtisaani 2mo agoThe use is definitely for cooling, but I'd also be curious to know what happens to the water later. If it's a closed loop circulation, the water should be returned back to the environment, just warmer than it was originally. Surely that wouldn't be so bad?