Amazon Points to Water Conservation Steps in India Amid Data Centre Scrutiny

Amazon said on Friday its Indian operations had reached a major milestone in water conservation, at a ​time when global tech giants face increasing pressure over their ‌expansion of resource-hungry AI data centres.

The US-based company announced it had turned "water positive" in India this year - meaning it returns more water to communities than it uses across ​its operations, which include data centres, corporate offices and warehouses. It said ​it accomplished the goal a year earlier than planned, both by ⁠reducing water use at its facilities and through projects such as ​watershed restoration and efficient irrigation.

Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet's Google are among companies that ​are facing shareholder and activist pushback over the environmental impact of data centre projects, Reuters reported earlier this year.

Amazon has set a goal to become water positive globally in its ​data centre operations by 2030. The company said it does not use ​water to cool its Indian data centres.

The issue of water is particularly acute in ‌India, ⁠which is home to 18% of the global population but only 4% of the world's freshwater resources. The summer generally brings shortages and rationing, and this year is particularly severe, with a strong El Nino resulting in weak monsoon rains.

Among ​the hardest hit ​states are Karnataka, ⁠home to tech-hub Bengaluru, and Maharashtra, where financial capital Mumbai is located. Mumbai, with a population of 13 million, ​has just 40 days' worth of water left, authorities ​said this ⁠week.

Amazon is expanding its footprint in India, where it plans to invest more than $35 billion by 2030 to boost AI capabilities and exports.

Its cloud services provider, Amazon ⁠Web ​Services, plans to invest about $8.2 billion in ​Maharashtra, India's information technology ministry said last year. Microsoft and Google have also announced sizeable data centre investments ​in India over the past year.