'It's pillage': thirsty Uruguayans decry Google's plan to exploit water supply

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/uruguay-drought-water-google-data-center

‘It’s pillage’: thirsty Uruguayans decry Google’s plan to exploit water supply

Country suffering its worst drought in 74 years, with government even mixing saltwater into drinking supply

Grace Livingstone in Montevideo
Tue 11 Jul 2023 06.15 EDT

A plan to build a Google data centre that will use millions of litres of water a day has sparked anger in Uruguay, which is suffering its worst drought in 74 years. Water shortages are so severe in the country that a state of emergency has been declared in Montevideo and the authorities have added salty water to the public drinking water supplies, prompting widespread protests.

Critics claim that the government is prioritising water for transnationals and agribusiness at the expense of its own citizens. Daniel Peña, a researcher at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, said: “Only a tiny proportion of water in Uruguay is used for human consumption. The majority is used for big agro industries, such as soya, rice and wood pulping. Now we have Google planning to use enormous quantities of water.”

The search giant has bought 29 hectares (72 acres) of land to build a datacentre in Canelones department, in southern Uruguay. The centre would use 7.6m litres (2m gallons) of water a day to cool its servers – equivalent to the domestic daily use of 55,000 people, according to figures from the Ministry of Environment obtained by Peña through a legal action. The water would come directly from the public drinking water system, according to Peña.

…

In a statement, Google said the hub would serve Google users worldwide, processing requests for services such as YouTube, Gmail and Google Search. “The Uruguay data center project is still in the exploratory phase, and Google’s technical team is actively working with the support of national and local authorities. We expect preliminary numbers (like projected water consumption) to undergo adjustments. At Google, sustainability is at the core of everything we do, and the way we design and manage our data centers is no exception,” it said.

…more…

[harumph]

1. Make it a condition that they (Google) de-salinate the water they require.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Or insist they make it a closed loop with cooling towers

and that they treat and give back the wastewater to the region.

Not that hard to do. Esp. when the whole system shouldn't be in contact with anything toxic in it's process.

[Wonder Why]

3. Can't be true. Would Google do something so mean?

"Don't be evil" is a phrase used in Google's corporate code of conduct, which it also formerly preceded as a motto.

Nah! Pffft!