Drought, Data and Digital

Europe is having a summer that is hard to ignore.

After months of heat and below-average rainfall, drought is affecting large parts of the continent. Rivers are running exceptionally low, soils are drying out, and the risk of wildfires remains high. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre reported this week that drought has affected large parts of Europe since spring, with further warm and dry conditions forecast into September.[1]

For many people, the reality of water scarcity is becoming much more visible. In the UK, hosepipe restrictions have brought the issue into everyday conversations.[2] Across southern Europe, drought is putting additional pressure on agriculture, ecosystems and water supplies.[3]

But perhaps this very dry summer should also make us think about something we don’t see quite so easily: the water behind our digital lives.

Digital doesn’t mean weightless

We tend to think of digital communication as the environmentally friendly alternative to physical communication. But behind that click is a vast physical infrastructure. Our emails, photographs, video calls, streaming services, online shopping and increasingly AI-powered tools all depend on data centres, networks, servers and electricity.

And these facilities need to be cooled.

Depending on the technology, location and energy mix, cooling data centres can require significant amounts of water. The European Environment Agency (EEA) now identifies data centres and AI as emerging challenges for Europe’s water resources, particularly as digital infrastructure expands.[4]

Data centres aren’t responsible for Europe’s drought. But as demand for data centres grows around the world, so too does the need for the energy, cooling and infrastructure that supports our digital lives. Therefore, it is putting additional pressure on water resources in places where supplies are already under stress.

The Water We Don’t See

The EEA estimates that around 30% of EU territory experiences seasonal water scarcity on average each year, with southern Europe particularly exposed. [5] Water scarcity isn’t simply a problem for one country or one summer; climate change is expected to increase the frequency and impact of drought events.

At the same time, Europe’s digital infrastructure is growing rapidly. The two trends aren’t unrelated. As we use more digital services, more infrastructure is needed to support them. And as Europe becomes hotter and drier, the question of how that infrastructure uses resources becomes increasingly relevant.

The European Environment Agency’s recent assessment of AI’s environmental footprint highlights that water can be used at several stages, including data-centre cooling, electricity generation and semiconductor manufacturing. Crucially, the amount varies considerably depending on where and how the technology operates.[4]

So perhaps it’s time to move beyond the simple assumption that digital automatically means greener.

A More Thoughtful Digital Future

The lesson of Europe’s exceptionally dry summer isn’t that we should use less technology. AI and digital technology have enormous potential. They can help us work more efficiently, improve services, support scientific research and solve some of the challenges we face as a society.

But not every task needs AI, and not every digital service needs to be running at maximum scale all of the time.

Governments and regulators have an important role to play in ensuring that the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure is properly planned and that new data centres are developed with local water availability, energy demand and environmental pressures in mind.

And as consumers, we can play our part too. We don’t need to fear AI or reject digital technology. But we can become more conscious users of it, thinking about when AI genuinely adds value rather than simply using it because we can.

The digital world may feel invisible, but the infrastructure behind it is very real.

Sources

1. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Worsening drought and record heat grip Europe, fuelling extraordinary wildfires and extremely low river flows, 2026
2. The Guardian, Thames Water joins hosepipe ban as England and Wales approach drought status, 2026
3. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Current drought situation in Europe, 2026
4. EEA, Artificial intelligence and sustainable consumption in Europe, 2026
5. EEA, Water scarcity conditions in Europe, 2025

Photo Credit: Will Photography, Adobe Stock