Intro: In a city already facing a daily water deficit, the rapid rise of data centres, the physical backbone of cloud computing and AI, presents a difficult question: how should the metropolis accommodate one of the most resource-intensive forms of digital infra
BENGALURU
CH NEWS
Bengaluru has established itself as a data centre hub, and its presence is poised for growth. According to State IT Minister Priyank Kharge, out of the 32 data centres currently operational in the state, 31 are located in Bengaluru. He also mentioned that there are 10 additional facilities planned for the future.
Outside these 32, only a handful of smaller centres operate in cities such as Mysuru. Bengaluru, however, remains the clear epicentre. Whitefield alone hosts seven major facilities with nearly 120 MW of capacity, including large campuses developed by global operators. Electronics City has positioned itself as an AI-ready hub.
Navarathna Agrahara, home to a 67.2 MW hyperscale facility, anchors one of the state’s largest deployments, while Bidrahalli and Bidadi are emerging as peripheral data centre zones. With companies expanding AI research operations here, at least eight data centres explicitly describe themselves as AI-ready or AI data centres, underscoring the computational intensity of workloads they are designed to handle.
But as megawatts increase, so do megalitres. Data centres consume electricity to power servers — and water to cool them. Most large facilities rely on evaporative cooling systems, where water absorbs heat and is lost as vapour. According to Deloitte’s most recent study, 1 MW data centre needs 68,500 litres of water a day.
A 20 MW facility common among newer AI-focused campuses would, therefore, require approximately 1.4 million litres daily. That’s equivalent to daily water needs of around 27,000 urban households, based on average per-household consumption norms. The paradox is stark: a city struggling to secure drinking water must also secure cooling water for server farms that power global cloud services.
City’s water requirment
In several parts of the city, residents track tanker arrivals like train schedules and budget for water the way they would for school fees. Each day, the city requires between 2,600 and 3,000 million litres of water for domestic and industrial use. Around 2,000 MLD is pumped from the Cauvery, with the remaining drawn largely from borewells. A significant share of the city’s 14,000 govt borewells have already run dry. Adding to the strain, nearly a quarter of Cauvery water is lost as unaccounted flow. A BWSSB projection presented to the govt estimates the daily shortfall at 775 MLD, even after Cauvery Stage V becomes fully operational.
