How does AI use of water and electricity affect local communities?

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1. 1

   Data centre water consumption

   npj Clean Water (Mytton)Published Feb 15, 2021Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “To reliably support the online services used by these billions of users, data centres have been built around the world to provide the millions of servers they contain with access to power, cooling and internet connectivity. Whilst the energy consumption of these facilities regularly receives mainstream and academic coverage, analysis of their water consumption is scarce. Data centres consume water directly for cooling, in some cases 57% sourced from potable water, and indirectly through the water requirements of non-renewable electricity generation. Although in the USA, data centre water consumption (1.7 billion litres/day) is small compared to total water consumption (1218 billion litres/day), there are issues of transparency with less than a third of data centre operators measuring water consumption. This paper examines the water consumption of data centres, the measurement of that consumption, highlights the lack of data available to assess water efficiency, and discusses and where the industry is going in attempts to reduce future consumption.”

2. 2

   Local community opposition to data centers is clear and growing

   Research paper (Reece et al.)Published Apr 21, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Rapid growth in computing and generative artificial intelligence is creating unprecedented demand for data center construction. Anecdotal media reports suggest residents often resist local governments approving data centers in their communities, citing concerns over issues like water consumption and expected increases in utility costs. However, studying the political reactions of communities across the United States to data centers remains difficult due to a lack of centralized data on local policymaking. We offer the first large-scale evidence of how U.S. communities discuss and respond to data center expansion by collecting and transcribing videos of local government meetings between 2007 and 2026. We show that the primary tension in local policymaking is between the economic development potential of data centers and expected local costs, such as noise, utility rate increases, and environmental impacts. We also find that residents are systematically less supportive of data centers than officials when discussing the same proposals.”

3. 3

   Data Centers Water Footprint: The Need for More Transparency

   AGU Advances (Privette et al.)Published Feb 27, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “The exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has driven the rapid global expansion of data centers, raising serious concerns about their environmental impact—particularly water use. While national and global water consumption by data centers may seem modest compared to other users, their localized impacts can be significant—especially in regions already facing water stress or drought. This commentary examines the multi‐faceted water footprint of data centers, encompassing direct cooling, electricity generation, and supply chain water demands. It highlights major gaps in transparency around how much water data centers use, which undermine effective regulation, innovation, and community planning. To ensure the sustainable growth of digital infrastructure and the preservation of water resources, comprehensive monitoring and public disclosure of water use are essential. Equally important are resilient water infrastructure planning and stronger collaboration between industry and communities.”

4. 4

   How sovereign control, decarbonization and energy costs shape public support for data centers.

   Nature communications (Heering & Voeten)Published Aug 10, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “However, data centers require enormous amounts of electricity and water, threaten emission-reduction targets, and often raise local electricity prices. As a result, local communities increasingly mobilize against data center construction. We use a vignette and conjoint survey experiment in Germany to evaluate how publics think about the environmental, economic, and (geo)political tradeoffs that data centers entail. We find that directly priming people with digital sovereignty concerns only marginally increases support for building more data centers. Yet, support varies substantially based on characteristics that people do have strong views about: decarbonization, geopolitics, and local environmental and economic impact. Geopolitical concerns are particularly salient: people strongly favor data centers operated by German or European firms over US or Chinese operators. These nationality effects are large even when compared to the effects of electricity price increases and variation in energy sources. Our findings suggest that public opposition to data centers depends on pre-existing political cleavages and that sovereignty concerns loom large.”

5. 5

   AI Data Centers and Water Consumption

   Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park) (Ventura)Published Apr 1, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Fresh water is essential for survival. Fresh water makes up about 3% of the water on earth and only 0.5% of water is safe for human consumption. Increasing drought and water scarcity are diminishing water availability. At the same time data center developers are using water from rivers and underground sources to cool their buildings. Did you know? That up to5 gallons of water can be used daily by large data centers, which is the same amount used by a town with 10,000 -50,000 residents. A medium-sized data center can use about 110 Million Gallons of water per year, which is similar to the yearly use of roughly 1,000 households. The data centers collectively use billions of gallons of water each year. The 5,426 Data Centers across the country are impacting local communities. For example in Northern Virginia, all data centers consumed nearly 2 billions gallons of water in 2023, a 63% increase since 2019 ( Yañez-Barnuevo, 2025).This is an issue that cannot be ignored, as it could significantly impact in our fresh water resources.”