UK Government's Controversial Advice: Delete Digital Data to Combat Drought

England's drought crisis sparks bizarre advice to clear inboxes as water levels plummet to record seasonal lows.

Hosepipe bans remain in place while reservoirs across England drop to alarmingly low seasonal levels The UK government has proposed an unconventional way to contribute to water conservation during the country's ongoing drought - deleting old emails and pictures. ThE suggestion came from the National Drought Group, which includes government agencies, water companies, and environmental experts. The ongoing drought in England has been declared a "national incident" following the driest six months since 1976. The reasoning behind the advice is linked to the operation of data centers, which support services such as email hosting, cloud storage, and email services. These facilities use large volumes of water to cool servers and maintain optimal performance, so by reducing the amount of stored data, the argument goes, demand on data center capacity could be lowered, potentially cutting water consumption. However, the real-world effect of such personal digital cleanups is uncertain. While data centers do consume large amounts of water, particularly in high-density computing operations, experts have not presented clear evidence showing that deleting small amounts of personal data measurably reduces their cooling needs. Critics suggest that structural changes, like reducing leaks and improving water infrastructure, would have a more immediate and tangible impact. The drought has already prompted hosepipe bans in parts of Yorkshire, the South East, and other affected regions. Reservoirs have dropped to 67.7% capacity on average across England, far below the early August norm of over 80%. Some are now below 50%, with river flows at historically low levels in certain areas. Prolonged dry conditions and multiple heatwaves have worsened the situation, affecting agriculture, wildlife, and public water supply. Water companies have intensified leak repairs, with some fixing over 800 each week, and smart meters are being used to identify problem areas. Public awareness campaigns have encouraged traditional water-saving actions such as taking shorter showers, fixing leaking toilets, and collecting rainwater for garden use. The inclusion of a digital storage cleanup in official conservation messaging reflects a broader recognition that water consumption is linked not only to domestic and industrial activities, but also to the infrastructure supporting online life. The growing demand for cloud storage and generative AI has added to the load on data centers, and environmental reports have shown measurable water use from AI processing tasks. Whether deleting old files will have an impact on water supplies remains open to question. However, England is in dire need of a solution for the drought, and small, everyday actions, whether at home or online, are part of the collective effort to protect the country's strained water resources. "Simple, everyday choices, such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails, also help the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife," said Helen Wakeham, Director of Water at the Environment Agency.

The pro AI UK government has advised citizens to 'Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems' to help reduce water consumption during national drought

We're going to be the best at AI but you lot need to delete old email and pics to save water. Folks in the UK are doing it tough right now with droughts sweeping the country. The situation has gotten so bad the government has declared it a "nationally significant incident." Alongside a release with advice on how residents can help save water. Some of these suggestions are great ideas but included amongst them is advice so out of touch I'm beginning to think they found it on a series of tubes. Tom's Hardware spotted the odd suggestion from the UK government which instructs citizens to "Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems." It's especially odd advice coming from a government that wants to go all in on AI and other notoriously water-hungry technologies. It falls in line with the usual key tactic for many large groups when it comes to environmental accountability: shift blame and responsibility to the individual despite their efforts being miniscule in comparison. It's a lot like what many countries, including my own, experienced with recycling. We were taught how to stringently separate waste and diligently dispose of it correctly. Almost all of the waste sneakily still went to regular landfill as we didn't have facilities to process it. We were told we were saving the world while a billionaire flew over in a jet doing more damage than I could with a million plastic straws. More plastics were sold because we thought we were recycling them. Don't forget to delete those emails. This advice from the UK government rings the same, because not only will deleting your data be very unlikely to help with water conservation, it could wind up doing the opposite. It's no lie that datacentres are high users of water, storing your data isn't something that uses much of it. Instead, water is likely used in evaporative cooling situations which are more likely to be triggered by more computing intensive acts. Things like generative AI processes, not holding a few jpegs. The act of looking through what you have stored in one of these centres and deleting things would likely use more water than if you had forgotten they existed in the first place. There's also no guarantee that your data is even stored in the UK, so it could be another country's water you're wasting or saving. Don't worry though, you can always tell your AI MP all about your disolusion. Despite that confusing advice, other tips on the website are a fair bit more sensible. As someone who grew up in the desert often with water restrictions, using rainwater, fixing leaks, reusing grey water, and generally being mindful of taps are great ways to save water. Even taking a shorter shower is pretty good actionable advice, and far more likely to help than deleting your emails.

UK Asks Citizens To Delete Old Emails, Pictures To Save Water

The UK government's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs is asking its citizens to delete their old emails and pictures to minimise the usage of data centres. As five of its regions are still experiencing a drought, and another six are witnessing prolonged dry weather, the country has come up with an unconventional solution to save water. The UK's Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said that data centres require "vast amounts of water" to maintain the thermals of their systems. Hence, getting rid of some digital data might be useful. The UK Govt's Unique Proposal To Solve The Water Crisis On Monday, August 11, the National Drought Group of the UK held a meeting to discuss what is now being regarded as a "nationally significant incident". Five regions of the country are experiencing drought, while six others face prolonged dry weather. Hence, the country is staring at an extreme water crisis, warranting its citizens and corporations to save as much of the resource as possible. In a press note released after the meeting concluded, the UK government's Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs listed various ways in which its citizens can contribute. However, one solution, among seven, stood out as being unconventional. The UK government urged its residents to start deleting their old emails, pictures, and other digitally stored files, which use data centres. The reasoning behind this was that data centres require "vast amounts" of water to keep their systems cool. This Is Not Just Limited To The UK, But A Global Problem Although the situation is dire in the UK, the problem is not unique to the European nation alone. People across the globe have been using cloud storage to keep their images, documents, and other files, as it offers convenience and is relatively more secure than a physical hard drive. Additionally, as more users become familiar with artificial intelligence (AI), the processing power required to execute queries is also rising exponentially. Since a majority of these AI-enabled tasks are not processed on a user's device, the usage of data centres has grown simultaneously. Specifically talking about AI data centres, they are very resource-hungry, requiring high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), advanced storage solutions, networking infrastructure, electricity, and cooling capabilities. They are often established on large pieces of land, covering a considerable amount of real estate. To fulfil the intense energy consumption and cooling requirements, AI data centres often use compact server configurations. To control the temperatures, AI data centres often rely on liquid cooling. This method requires large amounts of water to transfer and dissipate heat. It is said to be more efficient in handling high-density heat, while improving power usage effectiveness and minimising the chances of a data centre overheating under pressure. In March, OpenAI's Sam Altman posted on X (formerly Twitter) that ChatGPT is temporarily introducing a limit to discourage people from generating images, after the Ghibli images started flooding the internet. He said that "our GPUs are melting". As more people begin to use AI agents in their day-to-day lives, the higher power consumption of AI data centres will warrant the use of more water to keep them cool.