AI demand means that data centers are deteriorating drought in Mexico

Located in the middle of Mexico, Querretaro is an attractive and colored colonial style city known for its glossy stone aqueduct.

But the city, and the state of the same name, is also recognized for a very different reason – as the data center capital of Mexico.

State companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Odata are filled with these warehouses, computer servers.

No one can supply an accurate number, but there are scores among them, with more manufactured.

Asceenty, which claims to be the largest data center company in Latin America, has two in Querretaro, both under construction, with about 20,000 square feet in size.

It is a forecast that data centers will enter the state in more than $ 10BN (£ 7.4bn) in the next decade.

“AI demand is accelerating the construction of data centers at an unprecedented speed,” says Sholi Ren, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California.

So, what is the attraction of Querétaro?

“This is a very strategic field,” in Asceenty, the manager of the country of Mexico, Arturo Bravo.

“Querétaro is right in the middle [of the country]Connecting East, West, North and South, “he says.

This means that it is relatively close to Mexico City. It is also connected to high -speed data cables, so large amounts of data can be transferred quickly.

Mr. Bravo also states that the municipality and central government have support.

“It has been identified as a technology center,” he says. “Both provide a lot of good options in terms of permits, regulation and zoning.”

But why are many American companies choosing this state close to the house?

Shaoli Rain, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Rivaraside of the University of California, says, “The lack of power grid capacity in the US is carrying forward to find the power available to technical companies anywhere,”

Data centers host thousands of servers – a special type of computer to process and send data.

Anyone who works with a computer on his lap will know that they become uncomfortable. Therefore, to prevent melting data centers, detailed cooling systems are required that can use huge amounts of water.

However, not all data centers consume water at the same rate.

Some use water evaporation to spread heat, which works well but thirsty.

A small data center using this type of cooling About 25.5 million can use Liter water per year.

Other data centers, such as an asnti-owned, use a closed-loop system, which transmit water through chillars.

Meanwhile, Microsoft told the BBC that it operates three data centers in Querretaro. They use direct outdoor air to cool about 95% of the year, which requires zero water.

It said for the remaining 5% of the year, when the environment temperature exceeds 29.4 ° C, they use evaporational cooling.

For the financial year 2025, its Quetaro sites used 40 million liters of water, the couple.

It is still a lot of water. And if you look at the overall consumption on the owners of the largest data center, the number is very large.

For example, Its 2025 stability report Google said its total water consumption increased between 2023 and 2024 by 28% to 8.1BN gallons.

The report also states that 72% of the freshwater used came from sources of “low risk of water shortage or shortage”.

In addition, data centers also consume water indirectly, as water is required to produce electricity.

Additional water consumption by data centers is a major problem for some in querretaros, which eliminated the worst drought of a century last year, affecting crops and water supply to some communities.

At his home in Querretaro, activist Teresa Rolden told me that the residents have asked the authorities for more information and transparency about the data centers and the water used by them, but say it is not coming.

“Private industries are being given priority in these dry areas,” she says. “We hear that 32 data centers are going to be, but water is necessary for people, not for these industries. They are not for these industries. [the municipality] They are giving priority to providing water to private industry. Citizens are not getting the same quality of water compared to water that the industry is receiving. ,

Speaking to the BBC at Querretar, Claudia Romero Herra, founder of the water activist organization Bajo Tiera Muso del Agua, will not comment directly to the data centers due to lack of information, but says that he is concerned about the state’s water issues.

“It is a state that is already facing a crisis that is so complicated and not enough water for human disposal. Priority should be water for basic means … This is what we need to guarantee and then perhaps it seems that some resources have been available for any other economic activities. There has been a conflict on public water policy for the last two decades.”

A spokesperson of the state government of Qureeto state defending its decision saying: “We have always said and reiterated that the water is for the consumption of the citizen, not for the industry. The municipality has zero faculties for the allocation of water and even less to hand over the quality of water.

Another concern for those living with data centers is air pollution.

Pro Rain says that data centers usually rely on diesel backup generators that release large amounts of harmful pollutants.

“They say,” the threat of diesel pollutants from data centers is well recognized, ” Pointing to a health evaluation Air quality around local data centers by the Department of Ecology in the state of Washington.

Responding to the concerns, Mr. Bravo said: “We work under the terms and conditions specified by the authorities, which in turn, in my perspective, take care of the fact that those conditions are acceptable to the health of the surrounding communities and everyone.”

For the future, more data centers in the Ascenty region are planning.

“I see it like progress and progress with a new data center every few years,” says Mr. Bravo.

“The industry will continue to grow as the AI ​​grows. There is a great future in the context of what is coming.”