Labour’s first artificial intelligence growth zone will be located near the UK’s first new reservoir in 30 years, raising concerns that the push for AI will worsen water shortages in the south-east of England. The zone, announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, is set for Culham, Oxfordshire, just seven miles from a planned Thames Water reservoir in Abingdon.
AI datacentres require significant amounts of water for cooling, with consumption ranging from 1.8 to 12 litres per kilowatt hour of energy usage at Microsoft’s facilities. A study estimates global AI could use up to 6.6bn cubic metres of water by 2027, equivalent to nearly two-thirds of England’s annual consumption. Even without AI expansion, England faces a water shortfall of almost 5bn litres a day by 2050, with the south-east facing a deficit of more than 2.5bn litres daily.
Adrian Ramsay MP, Green Party co-leader, warned that the strategy locks in high water usage for AI while communities face heatwaves and droughts. Professor Hannah Cloke from the University of Reading noted that the south of England already has severe pressure on water resources, exacerbated by climate change and growing demand from homes and hi-tech industries.
AI datacentres also have high energy demands, with the International Energy Agency estimating global datacentre electricity consumption could double to 1,000 terawatt hours by 2026. The government has set up a dedicated AI Energy Council to address these challenges and hopes small modular nuclear reactors could power datacentres. Thames Water said it was not a statutory consultee for datacentres but intends to ask the government about using sustainable water sources for cooling.
