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New Delhi: It sounds like a bizarre appeal in the beginning, but as the facts get revealed, the rationale behind the request unfolds.
Amid a severe water crunch in decades, the United Kingdom has asked its citizens to help tide over the crisis. With large swathes of England reeling under drought and reservoir levels steadily plummeting, the government and water regulators are asking citizens to relook their everyday habits and choices. One step being recommended is deleting old emails and photos stored online.
As per data from the UK’s Met Office, it's the driest January-to-July period the country has witnessed since 1976. Five regions of UK have been officially declared in drought, while six more are experiencing what officials dub as “prolonged dry conditions”.
Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, as well as the East and West Midlands have been formally declared as drought zones. Other regions — including the Northeast, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, East Anglia, Thames, Wessex, Solent, and South Downs — are witnessing prolonged dryness and could be officially declared drought-hit if the situation doesn't improve.
The country has been hit by multiple heatwaves, with August bringing the fourth one of the summer. Besides, at present, reservoirs are averaging 67.7% capacity, compared to the typical 80.5% for this time of year. Dr Will Lang, Chief Meteorologist at the UK Met Office, pointed out that parts of southern England have seen temperatures go up into the mid-30s Celsius. This has added to the strain of already stretched water supplies.
This July was the fifth warmest on record. Even though heavy showers brought some temporary relief in some areas, they couldn't reverse the long-term dip in river flows and reservoir levels.
Considering the raging crisis, water restrictions have been imposed across large areas in the UK. Ban has been slapped on hosepipe for Yorkshire Water customers and some parts of the Thames Water, South East Water, and Southern Water networks.
The National Drought Group (NDG), consisting of the Environment Agency, the Met Office, regulators, government departments, and water companies, have thanked the public for adhering to the caps in areas where they are in place.
Helen Wakeham, Director of Water at the Environment Agency, has underlined the significance of people's participation in conservation efforts. “"Simple, everyday choices, such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails, also really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife," Wakeham said.
"The current situation is nationally significant, and we are calling on everyone to play their part and help reduce the pressure on our water environment," Wakeham pointed out.
People have to asked to delete emails in their inboxes and unused photos to conserve water resources. The National Drought Group made the recommendation for the public, as "data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems".
A water cost is involved in each email, photo, or file stored online as it consumes energy to keep servers running. For every data stored, a lot of energy gets consumed. An Oxford University study revealed that a 1-megawatt data centre can use about 26 million litres of water annually just for cooling.
A report in 'The Verge' said that even a small data centre can consume more than 25 million litres of water annually if it uses traditional cooling methods that depend on evaporation. In 2021, Google's data centre in The Dalles, Oregon, consumed 355 million gallons of water, which could be used to fill around 538 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Water is used to prevent servers from getting overheated, most often through evaporative cooling systems that spray or disperse it to reduce temperatures. Such systems can cause data centres to evaporate millions of litres every year.
The water footprint goes beyond direct cooling. Vast amounts of water is used in electricity generation. The energy consumed by data centres indirectly adds to the burden on overall water resources.
A press release from the National Drought Group on August 13 said that “every click, photo, and email stored online has a hidden water cost — data may be digital, but its footprint is deeply physical”.
Promoting digital clean-ups has become more important as Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector advances. As AI makes huge strides, it would require huge data centres with powerful computers. Keeping them cool will require use of gallons of water, and this demand is likely to rise exponentially.
