Women and girls could bear the water-loss burden of a data center boom in Southern Africa — but it doesn't have to be that way

Throughout Southern Africa, the use of significant amounts of water to cool data center systems may be draining community supplies, with the potential for sharply felt and gendered impacts.

In the U.S., broad backlash to data center development has been making headlines over the past year in particular, but the energy- and water-intensive infrastructure powering artificial intelligence is a global issue. 

The New York Times reported in October 2025 that "nearly 60 percent of the 1,244 largest data centers in the world were outside the United States as of the end of June." Facilities in countries such as Mexico, Chile, India, and South Africa have been linked to concerns about electricity outages, water scarcity, and the impacts on the people most often expected to address these issues at the household level.

"When taps run dry, it is most often women and girls who walk further, wait longer, and carry heavier loads" to collect water, Lize Barclay, Senior Lecturer in Futures Studies and Systems Thinking at Stellenbosch Business School, wrote in a piece appearing in the Cape Argus last week. "What should be a basic human necessity becomes a daily negotiation, one that quietly reinforces inequality across rural villages and urban suburbs alike."

That data centers require huge amounts of energy, straining power grids, has gone largely uncontested. But while some have challenged the notion that they also require troubling quantities of water, others have pointed out that even closed-loop cooling systems may ultimately drain local reserves and contaminate drinking water supplies. 

Barclay, who teaches in South Africa, told CG that 62 data centers are currently located in the country.

"The other small Southern African countries all have at least one data center each, and the larger countries have around five each," she said. "Apart from South Africa, the other two countries with major data centers in Africa are Kenya and Nigeria." Barclay noted that all countries in the region plan to add more data centers, "especially to cater to AI," with financial institutions and health care operations driving much of the development.

Proponents of the technology have noted that AI could run largely on renewable energy sources while powering meaningful tools, such as improved weather warnings, famine monitoring, and disease diagnosis. But given the gendered division of labor throughout much of the world, data center expansion has the potential to further burden women and girls already tasked with water collection, often hampered by drought.

In her recent publication, Barclay cited the World Wildlife Fund, which reported in August 2025 that "adult women make up 56% of water bearers, and female children 31%" in rural South African communities, while "adult men represent only 3% of water collection."

Water collection can be arduous, cutting into education and incomes while potentially exposing water carriers to contamination, injury, and even sexual assault. The situation is worsened by extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, which have been intensified by a changing climate. Data center-driven water scarcity could force women and girls to travel even farther — often on foot — to collect water and to carry more at a time.

But Barclay says addressing these issues is still within reach, while requiring reform on a few different fronts.

"On the one hand, in Southern Africa, people tend to leave decision-making in terms of infrastructure to the government, and thus, more pressure should be placed on the government to require data centers to be more circular in their design and be more self-sufficient in terms of water and energy," she said. "It also requires a more equitable share of water collection duties so that it does not always fall on women and girls."

The problem is influenced by policy, resources, and economics. Barclay said the AI data market in South Africa is expected to grow from around $79 million last year to around $484 million by 2030. Across the continent, AI capacity is projected to increase 4.5 times by that same year. 

Barclay told CG there are multiple ways to address water scarcity and its gendered impacts — and solving them could require pulling on all of the levers. 

Within data centers, policymakers could require upgrades to the most efficient and least-polluting cooling systems. At the municipal level, policymakers could help to ensure the integration of effective humidity harvesting, circular water systems, and Indigenous stewardship practices to address scarcity and bring clean, sustainable sources closer to residential areas. 

Sharing the burden of water collection more equitably among family and community members could also help, especially as extreme weather worsens.