Delete Old Emails to Save Water? UK Govt's Unusual Plea Highlights Global Crisis

The UK government's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs is asking its citizens to delete their old emails and pictures to minimise the usage of data centres. As five of its regions are still experiencing a drought, and another six are witnessing prolonged dry weather, the country has come up with an unconventional solution to save water. The UK's Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said that data centres require “vast amounts of water” to maintain the thermals of their systems. Hence, getting rid of some digital data might be useful.

The UK Govt's Unique Proposal To Solve The Water Crisis

On Monday, August 11, the National Drought Group of the UK held a meeting to discuss what is now being regarded as a “nationally significant incident”. Five regions of the country are experiencing drought, while six others face prolonged dry weather. Hence, the country is staring at an extreme water crisis, warranting its citizens and corporations to save as much of the resource as possible.

In a press note released after the meeting concluded, the UK government's Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs listed various ways in which its citizens can contribute. However, one solution, among seven, stood out as being unconventional. The UK government urged its residents to start deleting their old emails, pictures, and other digitally stored files, which use data centres. The reasoning behind this was that data centres require “vast amounts” of water to keep their systems cool.

This Is Not Just Limited To The UK, But A Global Problem

Although the situation is dire in the UK, the problem is not unique to the European nation alone. People across the globe have been using cloud storage to keep their images, documents, and other files, as it offers convenience and is relatively more secure than a physical hard drive. Additionally, as more users become familiar with artificial intelligence (AI), the processing power required to execute queries is also rising exponentially. Since a majority of these AI-enabled tasks are not processed on a user's device, the usage of data centres has grown simultaneously.

Specifically talking about AI data centres, they are very resource-hungry, requiring high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), advanced storage solutions, networking infrastructure, electricity, and cooling capabilities. They are often established on large pieces of land, covering a considerable amount of real estate. To fulfil the intense energy consumption and cooling requirements, AI data centres often use compact server configurations.

To control the temperatures, AI data centres often rely on liquid cooling. This method requires large amounts of water to transfer and dissipate heat. It is said to be more efficient in handling high-density heat, while improving power usage effectiveness and minimising the chances of a data centre overheating under pressure.

In March, OpenAI's Sam Altman posted on X (formerly Twitter) that ChatGPT is temporarily introducing a limit to discourage people from generating images, after the Ghibli images started flooding the internet. He said that “our GPUs are melting”. As more people begin to use AI agents in their day-to-day lives, the higher power consumption of AI data centres will warrant the use of more water to keep them cool.