Cooling servers in datacentres, requires vast quantities of water. Amazon, Google and Microsoft have placed many of their datacentres in some of the world's driest locations. More are planned by these mega-companies, suggesting that there will be further impacts on human populations in these zones. Datacentres have been built in/ are planned for Chile; Greece; Hong Kong; Israel; Kuwait; South Africa; Spain; Thailand; Taiwan; UAE and the USA (notably in Arizona; Nebraska and Wyoming). Datacentres should, wherever possible, only be sited in locations with copious supplies of freshwater and 'green' electricity provision. Folk also have to live and agriculture cannot be ignored (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/09/big-tech-datacentres-water). The UK seems very keen to encourage the setting up of numerous datacentres. There must, however, be serious attempts to ensure their local environmental impacts are properly evaluated.
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