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According to an UN report, the electricity consumption of data centres had a water footprint of 4.5 trillion litres of water in 2025, enough to meet water needs of Chennai for 8.8 years (approximately). Chennai’s water requirements currently stand at 1,407 million litres of water per day. The report predicts the water footprint could reach 9.3 trillion litres of water by 2030.
| Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas J.
Indicating an invisible water footprint behind instant responses generated by systems such as ChatGPT, a research from the University of California, Riverside, estimates that a typical conversation with ChatGPT, involving around 20 to 50 exchanges, can consume as much as half a litre of water — a hidden environmental cost of rising dependence on artificial intelligence (AI).
India is racing to become a global hub of data centres, whose capacity has increased from about 375MW (mega watt) in 2020 to around 1,500MW by 2025, and projected to reach 13.56 GW (giga watt) by 2031-32.
According to an UN report, the electricity consumption of data centres had a water footprint of 4.5 trillion litres of water in 2025, enough to meet water needs of Chennai for 8.8 years (approximately). Chennai’s water requirements currently stand at 1,407 million litres of water per day. The report predicts the water footprint could reach 9.3 trillion litres of water by 2030.
Despite this, some States, which already have difficulties in meeting their water needs, have announced huge data centre projects. Google, in partnership with AdaniConneX, is coming up with 1GW AI hub in Vishakapatnam and Bharti Airtel’s Nxtra, and Meta’s AI-enabled data centre in partnership with Reliance Industries in Jamnagar.