Could deleting old emails and photos help Britain cope with this year's ongoing drought? This is possible, according to advice to the British public issued today by the National Drought Team. Of course, businesses and policymakers can do more to conserve water, but the drought is severe enough that officials are urging ordinary people to think about how their habits may be affecting water resources. The proliferation of data centers has also raised concerns about the amount of water needed to power and cool servers.
"Simple, everyday choices - such as turning off the tap or deleting old emails - can also really contribute to collective efforts to reduce demand and help protect the health of rivers and wildlife," Helen Wickham, director of water at the Environment Agency, said in a press release.
“Simple, everyday choices — like turning off the tap or deleting old emails — can also really help with the collective effort.”
The Environment Agency did not immediately respond to questions about how much water it thought would be saved by deleting the files, and how much water was used by data centers that store files or train artificial intelligence in drought-affected areas of the UK.
It is estimated that if a small data center relies on traditional evaporative cooling methods, it will consume up to 25 million liters of water per year. It's true that tech companies have been working for years to develop new cooling methods to minimize water use. Microsoft, for example, has tried placing data centers under the sea and immersing servers in tanks of fluorocarbon-based liquid.
Generating electricity for energy-intensive data centers also uses more water, as fossil fuel power plants and nuclear reactors also require water for cooling and use steam to turn turbines, and a shift to more renewable energy could help solve this problem.
The UK experienced its fourth heatwave of the summer in August, adding to drought conditions in the six months to July (since 1976). Five areas of the UK have officially declared drought, with a further six areas in the grip of "prolonged dry weather", according to a press release.
The National Drought Team says calls for residents to conserve water are paying off. According to the release, water demand in the Severn Trent area fell 20 per cent from its peak on July 11 following the launch of the "water conservation campaign". Plugging leaks is another major problem. The team said fixing leaky toilets could avoid wasting 200 to 400 liters of water every day.