SPAN chairman Charles Santiago said the federal and state governments play an important role in ensuring the sustainable development of data centres, which consume vast amounts of water and power for their cooling systems.
“The federal government must collaborate with state leaders in implementing water resource development projects, such as the construction of off-river storage facilities or barrages, to sustainably and effectively enhance raw water supply,” he said at a press conference here today.
He said Malaysia had begun developing data centres “in the most unsustainable way”, a practice that he said should change to align with the guidelines of the National Energy Transition Roadmap and the nationally determined contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.
NDCs are efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Santiago also recommended using rainwater and reclaimed water to power the cooling systems of data centres.
“Local councils must not approve the development order for data centres if they don’t have sufficient water in the area or pledge to use rainwater and reclaimed water for their buildings,” he said.
Santiago added that environmental and noise impact assessments on data centres over a five-year period should be completed before they are built, for the benefit of residents and businesses in the area.
He praised the zero-discharge policy implemented by the Selangor government through the Selangor Water Management Authority, saying other states should emulate the green initiative to ensure that premises always recycle and reuse their effluent.
Former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming previously said that data centre policies should be expedited as their water consumption could exacerbate resource depletion, fuelling criticism from opponents of the data centre industry.
A data centre with a capacity of 100MW uses about 1.1 million gallons of water per day for cooling, the equivalent of the daily water usage in a city of 10,000 people, according to a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Last November, the Johor government, through Ranhill SAJ Sdn Bhd, said it would develop four water treatment plants at an estimated cost of RM1.41 billion to address the growing water demand from the state’s data centres.
Data centre applications in Selangor, Johor
Data centres in Malaysia are mainly located in Selangor and Johor.
Santiago said the Selangor government had so far received a total of 27 applications for the construction of data centres while Johor had received 52 applications.
“While the applications are still under review, they also mean that a total of 79 million litres of water usage per day has been requested from Air Selangor up until 2032. This amount is equivalent to approximately 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools,” he said.
He also said the proposed data centres in Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri, Sedenak, Kulai, Pasir Gudang, and Pontian were expected to use up to 440 million litres of water per day until 2035.
“The 440 million litres of water represents approximately 23% of the water demand in Johor in 2023,” he said.