AIBU to question hosepipe bans while AI water use gets little scrutiny

https://sustainableict.blog.gov.uk/2025/09/17/ais-thirst-for-water/
Our own goverment says they do use plenty of water.
Some of it in the cooling system, some in electricity production, manufacturing of chips and so on. You always have to take the whole life cycle of the item, its energy usage and end of life disposal when talking about environmental impact.

Have you ever entered a large server room? Or got the cooling system failing? Even one just of the size of the average living room gets hot hot pretty quickly!

If only that were true but courtesy of mr google there are currently between 475 and 564 active data centres in the UK. Most major industry trackers and media outlets estimate the total count to be around 500 operational facilities nationwide.

Good question OP.

Really? It’s the boat people innit? 🙄 Nothing to do with the billions of gallons that Ai centres use.

Again, from the report

Cooling Systems
This represents the most direct and substantial water consumption within data centres
themselves. Servers, which are required for AI training and inference, generate
significant heat, necessitating efficient cooling systems to maintain optimal operating
temperatures and prevent overheating.6 A common method, evaporative cooling,
dissipates heat through both heat transfer (to air without evaporation) and latent heat
transfer (with evaporation), but crucially, around 80% of the water used in this process
is lost to evaporation, requiring continuous replenishment with fresh water.

Edit. In reply to emerald roulette

I voted YANBU, because it is true. Apparently things like AI centres, bombs and so do not have a carbon footprint or something like that. Only the common citizen, for the look of it.

But also, for plants, you can collect rainwater and use that. I know space can be an issue, but if you do need a hose to keep your plants going, then you should have space to get a tank. I could keep mine going with 3-4 watering cans and I do have a rain water tank. We do have large trees shading them, so I have not watered them yet, actually. Here it rained on Monday too.

I thought you were going to ask about pools for kids and hosepipes fights in the back garden. Luckily, there is no hosepipe ban here yet.

The M3 isn't near Windsor. It's not far ( about 11 miles) but some if not most of the data centres are in Slough, the other side of the M4 from Windsor.

AI is useful and productive though. It basically has done my work for me this past week.

https://datacentremagazine.com/news/how-closed-loop-cooling-is-reshaping-data-centre-design

Oh, this makes more sense
I was wondering why they'd need fresh

The whole water infrastructure really worries me here. The population has gone up massively.

The issue is water companies use a hosepipe ban to distract from the fact that their maintenance of their facilities is failing

I thought we had about 500 of them just in England

I’ve read it, so you don’t have to…

Global and UK water consumption statistics for AI and data centres
The scale of water consumption by AI and data centres is significant and rapidly
increasing, posing a global challenge with direct implications for the UK.
Globally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the data centre sector
consumes over 560 billion litres of water annually. Projections indicate this figure could
rise dramatically, reaching as high as 1,200 billion litres by 2030.13

Golf courses use much more than data centres.

Nobody says a word 🤔

Is there a way we could discuss that without needing to read 25 pages?

So that’s how it’s suported by current infrastructure? It’s reused within their system?

Where on earth did you get that info from? AI centres consume huge amounts of water.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688cb407dc6688ed50878367/Water_use_in_data_centre_and_AI_report.pdf

As far as I understand it the coolant for data centres are in a closed loop system and water use is negligible

As a poster said above I thought there were pretty limited numbers of data centres currently operating in the uk.

eta- @Telemicus has answered that there aren’t

In the grand scheme of things, we hardly have any data centers in the UK. Water use by them is miniscule at present. Sure it might grow in the future, but you are worrying about something which does not exist yet. Water your plants if you like.

Where else would it come from?

There is no separate water source, where do you think water comes from?

Im pretty sure you can still water things during a hosepipe ban, you just can’t use a hosepipe?

you don’t have to use second hand water (but agree this is less wasteful)

YANBU @MariaMagdalenaa

But the concern you rightly raise will be ridiculed and dismissed!

Agree, OP, that the water consumption related to AI is unacceptable and we should review our indiscriminate use of AI accordingly.
But I also think that hosepipes are used indiscriminately. Collect water in a water butt and use a watering can. You'll find you get through much less water.

Can’t you just use a watering can or jug?