Water Supply

(asked on 13th March 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of (a) data centres and (b) AI infrastructure on demand for water in the next 10 years.


Answered by
Robbie Moore Portrait
Robbie Moore
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 25th March 2024

The Environment Agency will be publishing its updated National Framework for Water Resources in 2025. This will reflect the expectation that regional water resources plans explore opportunities to deliver cross sector mutual benefits, as set out in a joint letter from Government and water regulators to regional water resources groups in January 2023.

This will include the need to work with data centre and AI industries to establish and understand their potential water demands, seeking to identify potential mutually beneficial solutions.

In some parts of England which are designated as water stressed, water companies may not be able to supply the required volume of water. The data centre and AI industry will need to investigate and plan for alternative sources of water, including on site water storage and water recycling.

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