Parliament Question: Water stress concerns and consumption by data centers in the country

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4074 ANSWERED ON 30.03.2026 WATER STRESS CONCERNS AND CONSUMPTION BY DATA CENTERS IN THE COUNTRY 4074 SHRI SANJAY KUMAR JHA: Will the Minister of Jal Shakti be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that concerns have been raised around data centers guzzling excess water for their cooling systems; (b) if so, the reasons for heightened concerns pertaining to water use by data centres in the country compared to other locations outside the country; and (c) whether it is a fact that 60.8- per cent of the country's data centres could face high water stress in this decade itself? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI (SHRI RAJ BHUSHAN CHOUDHARY) (a) to (c) The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) reported that no concerns have been received regarding water consumption in Data Centres. The Government is democratising the development and usage of technology. The focus is facilitating establishment of data centres in the country which will help strengthen digital infrastructure and improve delivery of digital services across various sectors. As per MeitY, data centre capacity in the country has grown from 375 MW in 2020 to more than 1500 MW till 2025. New approaches are improving cooling systems, enhancing water efficiency, and reducing overall energy consumption. To minimise water usage, the industry adopts advanced cooling technologies such as direct-to-chip liquid cooling, adiabatic cooling and immersion cooling. Industry also deploys high density racks to efficiently support high-performance computing & Artificial Intelligence workloads for further reduction of power and water consumption. The data centres in India are spread across the country and for regulation & control ground water extraction, guidelines have been issued by Ministry of Jal Shakti vide notification no. S.O. 3289(E) dated 24.09.2020 & amendment notification dated 29.03.2023. Together, these technologies improve water use efficiency and lower the water requirement across data centre operations. *****