The industry organization Water UK has published an alarming report on the critical shortage of water resources in the country. The large-scale development of artificial intelligence requires huge amounts of water to efficiently cool servers. Cooling towers and specialized heat removal systems consume this valuable resource directly. In addition, the growing demands of data centers for electricity indirectly increase overall water consumption. Experts have said that current government forecasts of water consumption are fatally flawed. Official technology development strategies simply ignore this important environmental factor.

Any further expansion of infrastructure in regions with water scarcity may be completely impossible. The existing load on local water supply networks has already reached its maximum values. The only solution to the problem will be either an increase in water intake from the environment, or the construction of new facilities. However, the planning and construction of large reservoirs can take up to fifteen years. The highest concentration of server farms is observed in the Slough region. Local data centers request up to three million liters of water daily, which is equal to the consumption of a small city.

Due to current regulations, facilities are required to use only drinking water for their technical needs. According to analysts, this results in a daily consumption of about six and a half million liters. Taking into account the government's ambitious plans to triple computing capacity by 2030, this figure will grow to almost twenty million liters. Such dynamics pose serious risks to the sustainable development of the region. The industry urgently needs a review of environmental standards and the introduction of innovative closed-circuit water supply systems.