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Water industry warns UK data centers lack future water supply
Water UK says government water forecasts exclude data centers and that England faces a projected 5bn litre a day shortfall for public supplies by 2055.
Water UK, the trade body for water companies in Britain and Northern Ireland, warned that the UK will not have enough water for future data centre growth, criticizing government planning around cooling demands for AI development. According to the trade body, data centers use water directly through cooling towers, chillers and humidification systems, and indirectly via the high electrical power needed to run them. Water UK said the government’s water forecasts are “fatally flawed” and “explicitly exclude” data centers, adding that there is no mention of water in key AI policy documents including the plan for delivering AI growth zones, the AI for science strategy and the AI opportunities action plan.
Water UK also said the Environment Agency’s most recent national framework for water resources, published in June 2025, did not include an estimate of data centre water demands. It warned that assumptions of always having enough water for economic needs are incorrect.
The trade body pointed to an earlier House of Lords report saying England faces a 5bn litre a day shortfall for public water supplies by 2055. Water UK added that more than three-quarters of data centers are located in the south and east of England, where water companies have imposed hosepipe bans on millions of people after extreme heat and low rainfall.