Delete Old Emails to Save Water, Environment Agency Tells Brits

The UK’s Environment Agency urges citizens to combat the severe drought through both traditional and innovative steps, such as discarding old emails and photos.

The Environment Agency says the UK has experienced its driest six months to July since 1976, with the current shortage now classified as a “nationally significant incident,” as reported by The Independent. Five areas are officially in drought, while six others face “prolonged dry weather.”

The National Drought Group (NDG) advises people to follow standard water-saving measures, including taking shorter showers, avoiding watering lawns, storing rainwater, and repairing leaks, while also highlighting the water consumption of digital storage.

Cloud file storage relies on data centres that use massive amounts of water to keep systems cool. A 1-megawatt data centre requires 26 million litres of water annually, according to research conducted at Oxford University.

Helen Wakeham, the Environment Agency’s director of water and NDG chair, said: “The current situation is nationally significant, and we are calling on everyone to play their part and help reduce the pressure on our water environment […] Simple, everyday choices – such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails – also really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife.”

The advice has sparked debate, as noted by TechSpot. Experts agree that data centre cooling consumes 560 billion litres of water annually, but note that deleting stored files has little immediate impact, as stored data produces minimal heat.

Some suggest the UK could conserve more water by decreasing its reliance on generative AI, as one 400-token AI response allegedly uses 45 ml of water, according to a report.

Training models is energy-intensive, but handling billions of daily queries consumes even more. Exact figures are hard to obtain, as tech companies rarely disclose detailed usage, forcing researchers to rely on estimates.

The issue is not limited to the UK. In the U.S., large data centres also consume millions of gallons of water on hot days to cool servers. Experts warn that such facilities can strain local water supplies, as “these are very hot processors,” requiring substantial cooling, according to Mark Mills of the National Center for Energy Analytics.

Recent research shows that AI data centers consume about 2% of global electricity, and sending one AI-assisted email weekly for a year uses 7.5 kWh, equal to an hour’s power for nine households.

Meanwhile, the Met Office warns dry, settled conditions are likely to continue across much of England.