'It's pillage': thirsty Uruguayans decry Google's plan to exploit water supply
Source: The Guardian
‘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 11.15 BST
Last modified on Tue 11 Jul 2023 16.00 BST
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.
Uruguay’s industry ministry says these figures are out of date because the company is revising its plans, and the datacentre will be “a smaller size”.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/uruguay-drought-water-google-data-center
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