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.

Some States have announced incentives to attract companies to set up their data centres. Andhra Pradesh, under its Data Centre Policy 4.0, offers 100% state GST (Goods and Services Tax) reimbursement on capital goods, 100% stamp duty exemption on first sale, and deemed distribution licenses for direct energy purchase for data center projects with a minimum capacity of 300 MW.

The UP cabinet recently approved the Data Centre Policy, 2026, aimed at creating over 2GW of additional capacity. Gujarat’s data centre policy for 2026-29 aims to create 7.5 GW of capacity and invest ₹6 lakh crore.

However, these projects have been met with resistance as several protests were held in Vishakapattinam, raising concerns on the impact on environment and the pressure on resources such as electricity and water. Similar protests were held in Thane, Maharashtra, to oppose Amazon’s proposed hyperscale project.

Many data centres do not disclose the water consumption figures. Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside, told The Hindu that changes should be made at the policy level to improve transparency. “I would start with mandatory disclosure of monthly and peak water use, water source, and whether the site uses potable, reclaimed, or groundwater. Water-stressed regions could also require stricter permitting, drought restrictions, and greater use of reclaimed water,” he said.

“Indian data centres can face higher cooling demand for the same workload because of hotter and often more humid conditions. But that does not necessarily mean higher water use, since it depends heavily on the cooling technology,” he added.

Environmental expert B.V. Subba Rao, who has also worked with the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), said: “Most of the data centres, like any other industrial estate, will be clustered in a single place and will drain out all the water in the region. These industries also depend on tanker water, and thus draw water from all sources across the city.”

Groundwater extraction

The CGWB’s 2024 Dynamic Ground Water Resources assessment puts India’s overall stage of groundwater extraction at 60.47%, with 11.1% of all assessment units nationwide already classified as “over-exploited.” According to Data Centre Map, Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh is now home to at least 17 operational or upcoming data centres, and has a stage of groundwater extraction of 104.79%, per the CGWB’s assessment — meaning the district draws more water every year than nature replaces.

Hyderabad has been officially designated over-exploited by the CGWB. Andhra Pradesh looks comfortable at the state level (29.83% extraction), but Visakhapatnam — where Google and Adani are building the flagship AI campus — had just 2.12 thousand million cubic feet of groundwater in reserve as of April 2026, the lowest of any district in the State.

Gujarat sits close to 54% extraction State-wide, but its coastal Saurashtra and Kutch belt, near Jamnagar and Dholera — where major investments have been planned — is grappling with seawater ingress and salinity.

Seawater cooling systems

One solution many companies are now looking at is cooling data centres with seawater instead of freshwater. Google has used Baltic seawater to cool its data centre in Finland for more than 10 years. It is now becoming an important part of India’s plan for building data centres along the coast.

However, brine discharge is a cause for concern as it can affect the marine ecosystem. “How do the companies ensure safe disposal of the rejected water [brine]? The government should be transparent about these projects. There are guidelines issued by international bodies and the Union government, but the implementation is not happening at the State level,” Mr. Rao added.

Published – August 08, 2026 10:42 pm IST