Malaysia plans strict rules for data centre water use

Malaysia is moving quickly to prepare stringent guidelines for the use of water by data centres. And the new rules could kick in as soon as June 2025.

This was announced at a news conference on Monday by the National Water Services Commission (Span), Malaysia's main water regulator.

New rules around water

Expected to be ready by the first half of 2025, the new rules will be mandatory for local water providers as part of the approval process for data centre in Peninsular Malaysia.

Inspired by best practices from countries like Singapore, it will specify the proportions of water sources that can be used. The goal is to achieve zero reliance on drinking water in 3 years.

Some alternative sources of water specified:

• Rainwater.
• Recycled water.
• Reclaimed water.
• Distilled seawater.

This will be implemented alongside advanced data centre cooling technologies that reduce water consumption.

Strain on water supplies

The tight timeline is attributed to the sharp increase in water demand from AI data centres, according to Span chairman Charles Santiago.

Some interesting nuggets shared by Span:

• As of 2024, the Malaysian government has received 101 applications to set up data centres. Only 45 such centres have been given the green light, with approved water supply demand totalling 142 million litres per day
• “In short, this is because we do not have enough water. What we are saying is that data centres can come in, but be prepared for alternative sources of water." - Span.

Thirsty data centres

Many of the data centres built today are far larger than the ones commissioned just 3-5 years ago, with some packing up to 10 times the capacity in megawatts.

As a result, the water consumption by these data centres has similarly surged, forcing Malaysia to act quickly - or risk running out of drinking water.

Why do data centres consume so much water? I'll write more about this next week.