Africa’s data centers prompt water consumption fears

A petition by civil society groups to South African authorities highlighted concerns over a lack of awareness around data center water consumption. Concerns are rising in Africa about the potential water use by data centers. A recent petition by a collection of civil society groups to the South African Human Rights Commission highlighted concerns over the lack of awareness of water consumption in a country that already hosts 60 data centers and is struggling with climate-change-induced drought. Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day; a recent study modelling water use in African data centers found that ChatGPT-4 used up to 60 liters of water — or a standard washing machine cycle — to produce a 10-page paper. While water usage by data centers is a global problem, Africa is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. “You are introducing sites which are resource intensive enough to be in many ways comparable to extractive industries,” Michael Marchant, head of investigations at civil society group Open Secrets, which was among the petitioners, told Semafor. “We see the risk of data centers, especially hyperscale, falling through the cracks.”