Murphy calls for audit on water consumption by data centres as hosepipe ban comes into effect

Uisce Éireann has issued notice of a six-week ban on using hosepipes in Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wexford, Wicklow and South Tipperary.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has said that Uisce Éireann has not provided meaningful data on water consumption by data centres and their effect on water available to meet demand from homes during periods of hot weather.

Murphy has called for an audit of water consumption by data centres and their effect on water available to meet demand from households in Dublin and other areas where data centres are located.

He has reiterated his call for a ban on further data centre development to prevent further environmental and societal damage. He condemns the fine threats against households and calls for water supply to data centres to be reduced during the heatwave.

The Dublin South-West TD said “we know that out of control data centre development has led to 23% of electricity being consumed by data centres. A recent report found that data centres consume 80% of electricity in Dublin, yet Uisce Éireann can’t or won’t tell us the effect of data centres on water consumption.”

“Close to 90% of data centres in Ireland are in Dublin, where a hosepipe ban comes into effect from tomorrow. We need to know how much of the water consumed in Dublin is consumed by data centres. We need to know what this consumption increases to during periods of hot weather. We need to know how this affects the water available to meet demand from households.”

Murphy asserted “the government knew this was coming. The 2021 Climate Action Plan states that climate change will lead to:

increased water demand as a result of the increased frequency of heatwaves, leading to further strain on water transmission and distribution networks, as well as on supply”

“Yet, in the meantime, successive governments have encouraged massive expansion of data centres and consequent impact on demand for water, and they can’t even tell us what that impact is.”

“It is completely unacceptable that Uisce Éireann and the government can’t or won’t answer these questions when they’ve known for many years that this crisis was approaching. Instead, their response is to make it an offence for ordinary people to water their gardens, with potential fines of up to €5,000.”

He said that “ordinary people should not be threatened in this way when water is being used in increasing quantities by data centres. On the contrary, water supplies to data centres must be reduced during the heatwave.”

“We urgently need a comprehensive audit of data centre regional water consumption, and I repeat our call for a ban on further data centre development to halt the damage they are wreaking on our environment and our society. So much damage has been done already, we cannot allow any more.”