The AI race threatens Britain's water resources: data centers face critical shortages
The rapid scaling of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the UK is exposing a troubling problem that regulators seem to have chosen to ignore. It concerns a catastrophic shortage of water needed to cool data centers. The industry organization Water UK, in its analytical document for parliament, is sounding the alarm: government forecasts of water consumption are "fatally flawed" and completely exclude data centers from calculations.
The paradox of "green" energy and "blue" water
The problem is compounded by the fact that modern data centers consume colossal amounts of water not only directly (through cooling towers and cooling systems), but also indirectly — due to growing electricity needs, the generation of which also requires water resources. At the same time, as Water UK emphasizes, neither the policy on creating AI growth zones, nor the "AI for Science" strategy, nor the AI opportunities action plan mentions water "a single word." Even the Environment Agency's June 2025 water resources program sidesteps assessing the needs of data centers.
The most telling example is the Slough region, which has a record concentration of data centers — about 125 facilities are already under construction or planned. Local operator Affinity Water reported that some data centers are requesting up to 3 million liters of water per day. This is equivalent to the peak consumption of a small town with 3,500 households, even though a hose pipe ban is already in effect across most of the region.
Alarming numbers
Current regulations require data centers to use exclusively drinking water, leading to a daily consumption of about 6.6 million liters. Given the government's plans to triple computing capacity by 2030, this figure could soar to 19.8 million liters per day. Water UK warns: targets for reducing leaks and cutting consumption are already at their limit. The only solution is either to increase water extraction from the environment (which would harm it) or to build new reservoirs, which would take up to 15 years.
The situation is exacerbated by the global nature of such problems. Recall that the governor of New York has already imposed a moratorium on the construction of large data centers, while in Texas, data center management systematically bypasses public environmental oversight.
My comment as an analyst: We are witnessing a classic case where technological progress outpaces infrastructure planning. The AI race is turning into a water war, and Britain risks finding itself in a paradoxical situation: having enough computing power for AI development, but lacking water to cool it. Investors and data center operators should prepare for a sharp increase in operating costs and tighter regulation, rather than the promised "green" revolution.