AI expansion risks exacerbating water scarcity in the UK, with 84% of water-intensive data centre developments proposed for areas that are already water stressed or are projected to be water stressed by 2040, according to a new report from Global Action Plan.1
The report highlights the staggering water impacts of AI expansion, with global AI water demand predicted to exceed the water use of all UK households by next year.2
Despite its reputation as a “wet” country, the UK’s water systems face intensifying strain from climate change, population growth and aging infrastructure, with water scarcity no longer a future risk but a near-term reality. Against this context, the UK Government is accelerating the expansion of AI data centres, threatening water supply further – with a single hyperscale data centre requiring enough water each day to meet the needs of around 10,000 people.
Data centres need to use vast quantities of water both directly for cooling and indirectly through power generation yet are not currently required to disclose their water usage. The Environment Agency is therefore not currently factoring this rapidly expanding sector into its risk planning, which already models a water supply shortfall of around five billion litres per day by 2055 without major new investment.3
Global Action Plan’s report exposes how this lack of industry transparency, combined with problematic claims from the tech companies that underestimate the water usage of data centres by excluding water used in power generation, are leaving the UK unprepared to tackle increasing water scarcity.
The majority of existing data centres – and half of those in planning – are around London and the Southeast, one of the most severely water stressed regions in the country. Slough has become one of Europe’s biggest data centre hubs, with at least 32 data centres currently running and more in various stages of planning and development including a 300MW gas-powered project whose planning application will be considered by Ministers rather than the Local Planning Authority.4 It sits in an area defined as by the Environment Agency as “seriously water stressed”. Under a high-growth scenario, Thames Water estimate that data centres would drive almost 30% of all new water demand in the region – around 270 million litres per day – becoming one of the dominant pressures on regional supply.5
While households, farmers and local authorities are being urged to reduce water use and prepare for scarcity, the UK Government is rolling out the red carpet for one of the most water-intensive industries in the modern world.
Communities want a safe, affordable, and reliable water supply but are worried that horror stories from US data centres will be replicated here. Big tech’s social licence is rapidly evaporating – the prospect of gargantuan chatbot factories monopolising tap water and draining rivers while the rest of us face hosepipe bans and increasing water bills will see it dry up for ever.
The UK Government must prioritise people over Big Tech profits and put the brakes on its AI agenda until the damaging environmental impacts are addressed and the social usefulness – or otherwise – of this infrastructure is established.
Oliver Hayes, Head of Big Tech at Global Action Plan and one of the report authors
We are horrified by the numbers in Global Action Plan’s new report, but not shocked. Global patterns, unfortunately, reflect the same trends found here – namely, Big Tech’s complete lack of regard for community needs or planetary limits.
Nicole Sugerman, Senior Campaigner at Kairos
The full report can be read here:
Not a drop to drink: How Britain's AI data centre surge threatens water security
- Global Action Plan (2026) Not a drop to drink: How Britain's AI data centre surge threatens water security [estimate based on Environment Agency 2021 classification of water stressed areas]
- Research from Li et al. (2025) shows that training a single cutting-edge AI model can evaporate hundreds of thousands of litres of clean water, and that global AI-related water withdrawals could reach 4.2–6.6 billion m³ per year by 2027. This is higher than the household usage of the whole of the UK based on 2024 population estimates and average water use per capita per day for England (Ofwat, 2024).
- Environment Agency (2025) A National Framework for Water Resources
- Data Centre Campus, Wapseys Wood, Buckinghamshire: Section 35 Direction, Planning Act 2008
- Thames Water (2024). Keeping water flowing for the future
