Mumbai: With Maharashtra declaring drought in 265 of its 358 talukas, Congress leader Pawan Khera has questioned the state government’s plans to rapidly expand the data-centre industry, asking how it would ensure that water meant for farmers and ordinary citizens was not diverted to the sector. The state government, however, said data centres would not be permitted to use regular water and would have to depend on treated sewage or desalinated water.

Farmers or data centres? Congress questions state’s water priorities amid drought. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

Data centres are massive warehouse-sized buildings that host powerful computer systems used to train AI models. Globally, there is growing pushback against the centres due to their immense consumption of water and electricity.

Khera, chairman of the Congress media and publicity department, raised the issue in a post on X a day after the drought declaration by the state government. He pointed to the state’s plans to expand its data-centre industry, saying the state had attracted more than $300 billion in investment interest and was targeting 5.7 GW of data-centre capacity by 2032.

“Data centres require two critical resources: power and water. The amount of water they consume depends on the cooling technology used, but water requirement is an important consideration, particularly in water-stressed regions like Maharashtra,’’ Khera said in the tweet.

Khera asked the government to spell out how it would ensure that water resources were not diverted from farmers and citizens to support the expansion of data centres. He also questioned who should have priority over water during the drought- farmers or data centres.

He referred to a reported plan under which municipal corporations would treat sewage, with MIDC further purifying the reclaimed water before it is supplied to data centres and other industries.

Khera questioned why similar efforts could not be directed toward providing reclaimed water for agriculture, which according to him would reduce the distress of farmers.

However, the government stated that data centres would be subject to conditions on their water use. A senior Industries Department official said, “Data centres are allowed in the state only if they are going to consume green energy. They have been allowed if they use treated sewerage water or water from desalination plants. At no point will they be allowed to use regular water.”

The drought declaration was made under the state’s drought-management framework after the prescribed rainfall and dry-spell indicators were met. HT on Sunday reported that the situation is being described as one of the worst in recent years, with comparisons even drawn to the 1972 drought, when the state faced acute shortages of water and food grains.