The United Kingdom is on the brink of a water crisis: the AI race threatens the country's resources.
The UK's ambitious plans to scale artificial intelligence are hitting a harsh reality: the country is catastrophically short of water to cool data centers. According to an analysis by the industry body Water UK, the government's official water consumption forecasts contain "fatal errors" and completely ignore the needs of data centers.
The problem is systemic. Huge volumes of water are consumed not only directly—through cooling towers and systems—but also indirectly, due to the colossal energy consumption of data centers. Yet, neither the "AI for Science" strategy, the AI Opportunities Action Plan, nor the policy for creating AI growth zones mentions water even once. Even the Environment Agency's national water resources program, updated in June 2025, sidesteps assessments of data center needs.
Slough Under Threat: 125 Data Centers on the Brink of Collapse
The epicenter of the crisis is the Slough region, which has a record concentration of data centers. Around 125 facilities are already planned or under construction here, with a hose pipe ban in effect across most of the area. Local operator Affinity Water reported that some data centers are requesting up to 3 million liters of water per day—equivalent to the peak consumption of a small town with 3,500 households.
Current Environment Agency regulations require data centers to use exclusively drinking water. This leads to a daily consumption of about 6.6 million liters. If the government fulfills its plan to triple computing capacity by 2030, the figure would soar to 19.8 million liters per day.
"The targets for reducing leaks and cutting consumption are already extremely ambitious. The only solution to secure new supplies is either to increase water abstraction from the environment, which would harm it, or to build new reservoirs. However, planning and constructing large facilities can take up to 15 years," the Water UK document emphasizes.
Notably, similar problems are already emerging in other countries. In July, the Governor of New York imposed a moratorium on the construction of large data centers until a law is approved, while in Texas, data center operators were caught bypassing public environmental oversight.
Expert Opinion: The situation in the UK is a stark example of how technological progress clashes with basic resource constraints. Ignoring the water issue at the planning stage could lead not only to environmental consequences but also to significant economic costs. Without an urgent policy overhaul and the adoption of alternative cooling systems (e.g., using recycled or seawater), the British AI industry risks facing severe growth limitations within the next 3-5 years.