Water
Microsoft's Middenmeer data centers used 84 million litres of drinking water during drought year
Partially confirmed
- Date
- 2022-08-16
- Location
- Middenmeer, Hollands Kroon, North Holland, Netherlands
- Category
- Water
- POLLUTION
Evidence
- Did the harm happen?
- Independently documented
- Did the data center cause it?
- Confirmed
- AI connection
- No verified AI connection
- What was affected
- Groundwater
- Why
- Water use figures documented by Noordhollands Dagblad; harm to supply during drought not established.
- Denials and outcomes
- Concrete and quantified: Noordhollands Dagblad found that Microsoft's Middenmeer complex used 84 million litres of drinking water in 2021, a severe drought year, against the 12 to 20 million litres Microsoft and Hollands Kroon municipality had said it would need. The operator, the complex and the period are all named, so the link to the facility is established. What is not established is harm to a specific well, farm or household, so this record documents excess consumption of a public supply rather than proven damage to a named neighbour.
Local newspaper Noordhollands Dagblad found that Microsoft's data center complex in Middenmeer used 84 million litres of drinking water in 2021, a year of severe water shortages, four to seven times the 12 to 20 million litres Microsoft and Hollands Kroon municipality had said it would need.