According to the World Bank, water-related disasters account for 70 per cent of all deaths related to natural disasters.
About 2 billion people worldwide don’t have access to safe drinking water and roughly half of the world’s population is experiencing severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.
These numbers are expected to increase, exacerbated by climate change and population growth.
In developing countries, the water footprint of AI data centres is more concerning. These countries often have limited water resources and are already struggling to meet the needs of their growing populations.
The addition of a growing number of data centres to the mix could put a strain on water resources and lead to water shortages.
Mohammad Atiqul Islam, assistant professor in computer science and engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, and one of the published preprint team, said water was rarely considered when locating data centres.
“Typically, companies care more about performance and cost; they do not take water intensity into account,” he told SciDev.Net.
“We need to ensure that the environmental costs are fairly distributed across different regions for environmentally equitable AI, which is a crucial consideration for responsible AI,” added Ren.*