The island where locals say data centres are taking their water
Summary
Residents on the Indonesian island of Batam protested because they have no water at home, while nearby data centres still use water to cool their machines. The local water agency said the shortage is due to drought, but residents say the data centres are using too much water, affecting the community’s supply.Key Facts
- Around 300 residents on Batam protested due to three months of no water from taps.
- Batam is developing a digital hub with data centres in Nongsa Digital Park.
- Data centres need large amounts of water to cool their servers and prevent overheating.
- Batam relies on six artificial reservoirs and has no natural freshwater sources.
- Locals claim their water is being redirected to data centres, causing shortages.
- Authorities deny that data centres are to blame, citing a longer dry season and drought.
- Earlier protests led to orders for data centres to build their own desalination plants.
- Experts say there is little reliable data on data centre water use in Indonesia, making it hard to know the true impact.
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