In a city already facing a daily water deficit, the rapid rise of data centres — the physical backbone of cloud computing and artificial intelligence — presents a difficult question: how should the metropolis accommodate one of the most resource-intensive forms of digital infrastructure? Bengaluru is already a data centre hub, and its footprint is set to expand. Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge told TOI that of the 32 operational data centres in the state, 31 are concentrated in Bengaluru. “Ten more facilities are in the pipeline,” he said.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.Water paradoxData 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 strugglingto secure drinking water must also secure cooling water for server farms that power global cloud services.A city counting every dropIn 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. In Sadaramangala near ITPL, Ananthakrishnan Jayaraman says his 90-house community received Cauvery water only in Sept 2025. “A single tanker load costs Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500, rising to Rs 4,000 in peak summer. Last year, we used 10 to 12 tankers a day,” he said. Hard water has forced many to install central and household softening systems costing up to Rs 1.2 lakh.Near Electronics City, Kalesh Kumar says his 210unit apartment complex relies fully on tankers, requiring two to three loads daily during summer. Though pipelines have been laid, Cauvery water is yet to reach them. “Larger complexes with 2,000 or 3,000 flats would face even greater stress,” he said. “Data centres should ideally be located in water-abundant regions, not in a hilltop city.”Hydrologist Shashank Palur of Well Labs estimates that data centres can consume roughly 26 million litres per megawatt annually. At city-scale capacities, cumulative daily demand could run into tens of millions of litres — equivalent to the needs of over a lakh people. Many facilities rely on groundwater or tanker supply, as industrial water from BWSSB is relatively expensive. Palur argues that the solution lies in shifting to treated water.“Bengaluru has excess treated water that can be reused for cooling, but current incentives prioritise rapid approvals over water sustainability. With capacity expected to double by 2030 and recent tax incentives accelerating growth, policy must push water-intensive sectors away from freshwater use,” he said.Vishwanath S of Biome Environmental Trust notes that environmental clearances require disclosure of water demand and sources, ideally limiting use to tertiary treated wastewater. “If it is groundwater, that is not sustainable,” he said.Unlike coastal hubs, Bengaluru lacks direct access to submarine cablelanding stations and large water sources. Its inland geography compounds infrastructure pressures: data traffic must route through port cities and water must be pumped, treated and often transported over long distances. In this context, each new hyperscale facility adds not only electrical demand but also thermal load — frequently managed with water.Scale 0f AI coolingAI workloads intensify challenge. Training clusters pack high-density GPUs that generate significant heat. Cooling them efficiently often requires advanced liquid cooling systems or enhanced evaporative cooling — both of which can increase water requirements if not carefully managed.Whitefield’s nearly 120 MW of installed capacity offers a glimpse of cumulative demand. Even a portion of that capacity operating at full load implies millions of litres of daily cooling requirement.As operators deploy facilities exceeding 40MW — hyperscale threshold typically associated with global cloud providers — the issue isn’t whether water demand will rise, but how it will be managed.What firms are doingSome firms have begun rethinking cooling architecture. Datasamudra’s 5MW facility in Kodigehalli uses air-cooled chillers instead of conventional water-cooled systems, reducing water demand by nearly 70%, according to COO Balaji Rajagopal.“Shifting from watercooled to air-cooled chillers is only about a 2–3% difference in operational cost, but it gives long-term sustainability benefits. We have been using this technology for the last three and a half years. Roughly 0.4 million litres of water are saved per day,” he said.The company has also adopted cold aisle–hot aisle containment systems, cooling only server rows instead of entire rooms, improving both energy and water efficiency. Emerging technologies may reduce water use even further.Elsewhere in India, a joint venture between Brookfield Infrastructure and Reliance Industries has demonstrated zero-water data centre operations by deploying closed-loop air-cooled systems that eliminate evaporative cooling. Such designs rely on advanced chillers and heat exchange systems rather than water-intensive cooling towers.Closer home, Srinivas Varadarajan, CEO and co-founder of Vigyanlabs Innovations in Mysuru, said: “…Traditionally, one relies on water for cooling, needing about two litres of clean water for every kilowatt. We decided to build sustainable infrastructure that uses minimal water.”
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