As India races to become a global AI powerhouse, the massive data center expansions planned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance and Gautam Adani’s group are raising serious questions about the country’s already strained water resources. While these projects promise economic growth, jobs, and technological advancement, they also highlight the urgent need for sustainable infrastructure in a nation facing acute water stress.
Ambitious Plans Driving India’s AI Boom
Reliance Industries, led by Mukesh Ambani, is transforming Jamnagar in Gujarat into a major AI data center hub as part of a broader $110 billion investment in digital infrastructure. Similarly, the Adani Group has committed tens of billions of dollars to data center projects across multiple states, including partnerships with global tech giants like Google for large-scale AI facilities in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
These initiatives are part of India’s explosive data center growth. The country’s operational capacity, currently around 1.4 GW, is projected to reach 5–10 GW by 2030. Hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta, alongside domestic players, are fueling this expansion to support surging demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence applications.
The Water Footprint of AI Data Centers
Data centers, particularly those running power-hungry AI workloads, consume significant amounts of water primarily for evaporative cooling systems that manage the intense heat generated by servers and GPUs. A typical 100 MW facility can use approximately 2 million liters of water per day. Nationally, data centers in India are estimated to consume around 150 billion liters of water in 2025, a figure expected to more than double to 358 billion liters by 2030.
India’s hot and humid climate makes cooling more water-intensive compared to cooler regions. Many facilities are concentrated in water-stressed urban centers like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR, where local shortages are already critical. While data centers represent a small fraction of India’s total water withdrawals—dominated overwhelmingly by agriculture at 80-90%—their localized impact can be substantial in high-stress zones.
India’s Deeper Water Crisis
India supports 18% of the world’s population with just 4% of global freshwater resources. Decades of groundwater depletion, erratic monsoons due to climate change, pollution, and rapid urbanization have created widespread scarcity. Over 163 million people lack access to clean drinking water, and major cities frequently face acute shortages, as seen in Bengaluru’s recent crises. In this context, the addition of any large-scale industrial water user warrants careful examination.
Mitigation Strategies and the Path Forward
The industry is not without solutions. Many operators are shifting toward air-cooled systems, free cooling technologies, liquid immersion cooling, and the use of treated wastewater to drastically reduce freshwater consumption. Hyperscalers and large developers are increasingly prioritizing sustainability targets, though public reporting on water usage by Indian data center operators remains limited.
Strategic siting in less-stressed areas, stronger regulatory frameworks, mandatory environmental impact assessments, and incentives for water-efficient designs will be essential. Policymakers must balance the economic benefits—job creation, GDP growth, and digital sovereignty—with responsible resource management.
Striking the Right Balance
Ambani and Adani’s data center ambitions reflect India’s bold vision for AI leadership, but they also serve as a wake-up call for better water governance. Sensational narratives may overstate data centers as the primary cause of scarcity, yet ignoring their growing footprint would be equally shortsighted. With proactive planning, technological innovation, and transparent policies, India can pursue its AI goals without exacerbating its water challenges. The coming years will test whether rapid digital growth and environmental sustainability can truly go hand in hand.
About The Author
