One in four of the world's data centres sits where water demand outstrips supply for at least a month a year, a study finds

What changed

The Washington Post reports on a study in Environmental Science & Technology (Rosa and colleagues, published 24 September 2026) that mapped 9,347 data centres worldwide against monthly water gaps, where demand exceeds available supply. The authors find that 25% of the sites (2,315) would have had at least one month of water gap a year under 2001 to 2010 conditions, and 33% would under future hydrological conditions. The United States hosts 39% of the data centres, and 21% of those are in water-scarce areas. Hotspots include the western US, Mexico, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, India and northern China, while northern Europe is relatively low-risk. The authors say such gaps rarely stop data centres operating and that the main risk may fall on other water users in the same basins. The study measures exposure by location, not each site's actual water use, which depends on its cooling and heat rejection design.

Related index data

• CategoryHeat Rejection suppliers

A supplier link means the company is named in the story or offers this kind of product. It does not mean a contract unless the story says so.

More in Heat Rejection

• AWS opens its South America (Chile) Region to selected customers, with more than US$4 billion of planned investment and primarily air-cooled data centres 11 Nov 2026
• BBC: residents oppose the East Havering data centre campus at North Ockendon on London's green belt, as a GLA report puts London grid connection waits at seven to 13 years 11 Nov 2026
• Equinix opens CH5 in Elk Grove Village, its sixth Chicago-area data centre, after a US$215 million initial investment, with air cooling that needs no routine water 11 Nov 2026