Data Centres vs. Daily Life: Batam's Water Crisis
A wave of protests has erupted on Indonesia's Batam island after residents claim data centres in the new Nongsa Digital Park are siphoning water from community reservoirs. Hundreds of locals stormed a data‑centre complex armed with empty bottles and jerry cans, chanting "Water! Water!" after three months of tap outages.
Residents of Bakau Serip say they now rely on tanker trucks that deliver "dirty, cloudy and smelly" water. The island’s water utility says it is working to improve supply but remains silent about any link to the data‑centres. BP Batam, the regulator, attributes the shortages to a prolonged dry spell and denies that home water is being diverted.
Batam is under pressure to become a digital hub, a goal that has attracted billions of dollars from firms in Singapore, the US, China and Australia. To house 10 approved data centres – six already in the Nongsa Park – the island projected power demand by 2030 could exceed 1,100 MW, enough to power nearly a million homes. Officials now insist new sites must build desalination plants, but locals worry about competing with servers for water.
Experts note that data‑centre cooling can consume up to 300,000 gallons of water per day, roughly the supply of 1,000 U.S. households. In a climate‑hit island that relies on six artificial reservoirs, such demand can strain the already limited supply. A local environmental group warned that the Nongsa reservoir could dry up within a month without rainfall, a risk magnified by a historic El Niño.
Community voices
"We want the government to pay attention to ordinary people," says Marlinda, a resident of Sei Beduk facing water shortfalls.
"Don't make billion‑rupiah investments while ordinary people are made to suffer… We just want our water supply restored," she added.
The tension illustrates a broader global backlash as AI‑driven data centres burgeon. From the U.K. to parts of Asia, communities are questioning the environmental costs of digital infrastructure, from noise and security lighting to water and energy consumption. Until data‑centre operators publish transparent water usage data and supply local communities adequate resources, the conflict on Batam is likely to intensify.
