UK government urges people to delete old emails and photos as data centres need a lot of water to cool them
The National Drought Group, formed under the leadership of the UK Environment Agency, has called for water conservation in various regions to cope with the critical water shortage. One of the water conservation methods suggested by the group is to 'delete old emails and photos,' and there is a lot of talk about whether this is actually effective.
National Drought Group meets to address “nationally significant” water shortfall - GOV.UK
UK government suggests deleting files to save water | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/science/758275/drought-delete-files-email-data-center-water-uk
According to the National Drought Group, five regions of England will be in drought by August 2025, and another six regions will be in the longest dry spell since 1976 (a state just short of drought), making aggressive water conservation an urgent priority.
The group called on water companies to proactively conserve water and take measures to prevent leaks, and also asked the general public to cooperate in saving water, introducing several ways to conserve water at home, including:
- Install a rainwater tank to collect rainwater and use it to water your garden.
Fix your leaky toilet. A leaky toilet wastes 200-400 litres of water per day.
- Water your plants with water from the kitchen.
Avoid watering the lawn. Brown grass will regrow and become healthy again.
- Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth or shaving.
- Shorten your shower time.
Delete old emails and photos. Data centers require a lot of water to cool their systems.
Of the above, the last option, 'deleting old emails and photos,' has become a hot topic of discussion as to whether it is actually effective.
While it's true that storing old photos in cloud storage can put strain on data centers every time you access them, the Environment Agency declined to respond to a request from The Verge for comment on how much water it believes deleting files could save.
According to
Data centers are also used for AI training, so the demand for data centers is also increasing as the demand for AI soars. Microsoft reported that global water consumption increased by approximately 34% from 2021 to 2022, and is reportedly looking into waterless cooling technologies and methods such as submerging data centers on the ocean floor .
Microsoft criticized for sucking up water during droughts and using it to train AI, while Microsoft begins considering small nuclear reactors as a power source for data centers - GIGAZINE
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