AI-related data centres use vast amounts of water (www.cbc.ca)

Communities and watchdogs are increasingly alarmed that the AI-driven data centre boom is draining municipal water supplies with little oversight. Residents in Nanaimo, B.C., and other jurisdictions have mobilized against proposed hyperscale facilities after learning similar sites can use tens of thousands of litres of potable water per day. Canada is courting data-centre investment—backed by federal incentives and major projects from Microsoft—yet regulators and disclosure rules lag, leaving municipalities to approve massive water draws amid growing drought risk. The scale is striking: a 2023 study estimated 10–50 ChatGPT responses consume ~500 ml of water (≈435 ml tied to electricity generation, 65 ml for cooling); the IEA estimated global data-centre cooling used ~140 billion litres in 2023. Evaporative cooling often requires potable water to avoid equipment damage, and examples in Ontario include approvals of ~39.75 L/sec (~1.2 billion L/yr) for one Microsoft site and 730 million L/yr for another—though Microsoft says newer designs use outside air and recycled rainwater and will only tap municipal water in rare conditions (>29.4°C or extremely low humidity). Lack of metering and transparency (some sites lack water meters or report flat fees) raises governance concerns: without stronger reporting, local regulation, and non‑water-intensive cooling designs, public backlash could threaten the social license for AI infrastructure growth.