Asia’s booming data centres, driven by AI and cloud demands, consume staggering water volumes—often in regions already facing severe scarcity. Without immediate adoption of cutting-edge cooling, water recycling, and renewable energy, the region risks crippling its digital infrastructure and worsening a looming water crisis.
-- The rapid expansion of high-performance data centres across Asia is intensifying a critical water crisis in host countries, driven by the substantial water consumption required for cooling these facilities. Cooling systems in data centres can account for up to one quarter of their total water use, and with Asia Pacific’s data centre water consumption projected to grow from approximately 0.92 trillion litres in 2025 to 1.7 trillion litres by 2030, the sustainability challenge grows more severe. These demands often fall in regions where water supplies are already stretched thin, amplifying competition with agricultural, industrial, and municipal users.
This challenge is acute across Southeast Asia beyond Malaysia. In countries such as Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines, major data centre hubs, are grappling with similar water stress issues brought about by the booming digital economy. Water-intensive cooling systems in these facilities exacerbate the scarcity in climates already vulnerable to droughts, fluctuating rainfall, and competing societal needs. The problem is compounded by the region’s ongoing reliance on fossil-fuel-based energy generation, which also demands significant water resources, further intensifying local water-energy nexus pressures.
Within Malaysia, Johor and Cyberjaya have been the default and preferred locations for high computing power data centres due to their strategic connectivity and developed infrastructure. However, these sites are increasingly unable to cope with growing water-cooling requirements. Johor, hosting the lion’s share of data centres in the southern peninsula, faces stiff competition for scarce water among industrial, municipal, and agricultural users, with many data centre water applications denied due to public water supply risks. Cyberjaya, although a technology hub, sits within a water-stressed basin where urban expansion and data centre water demand further strain its limited freshwater availability.
In fact, Malaysia’s National Water Services Commission has reportedly approved less than 18% of water requests from the 101 data centres operating across Johor, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan, underscoring the infrastructural and regulatory hurdles tied to this water crisis. These constraints threaten the feasibility of continued data centre expansion in Johor and Cyberjaya, particularly for those requiring high-density computing power with correspondingly high cooling needs.
By contrast, Tanjong Malim offers a compelling and sustainable alternative. The region benefits from a more abundant and stable water supply infrastructure, including access to river water and critical onsite water recycling and reuse capabilities. These attributes substantially reduce dependency on freshwater—a decisive advantage given the millions of litres per year that traditional data centre cooling consumes. Beyond water, Tanjong Malim’s significant potential for onsite renewable energy generation, especially solar, distinguishes it from Johor and Cyberjaya, which largely rely on grid electricity typically linked to water-intensive thermal power plants.
Central to this vision is the Sungai Samak Estate, a prime landholding totalling over 376 acres spread across five contiguous parcels just minutes from Tanjong Malim town. This estate uniquely positions itself to spearhead the region’s transformation into a holistic technology hub, integrating advanced data centres, renewable energy generation, and sustainable water management systems. Its access to river water combined with state-of-the-art water recycling infrastructure ensures a resilient and sustainable water supply capable of meeting the intensive cooling demands of next-generation facilities, as detailed in the Sungai Samak Estate development and further explored in the Tech Goldmine report.
The urgency of adopting such sustainable locations is supported by empirical data highlighting the near doubling of Asia-Pacific data centre water consumption within five years, driven by accelerating AI and cloud computing workloads requiring dense computational power and liquid cooling systems. Regulatory bodies now increasingly enforce Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) disclosures and tie financial incentives to achieving ambitious water efficiency targets, which makes sustainable water sourcing critical for operational licenses and investor confidence.
Tanjong Malim also supports advanced cooling innovations such as liquid cooling and hybrid systems that reduce energy use by 20-30% and facilitate shifting toward lower freshwater consumption via onsite recycling and reuse. This flexibility contrasts markedly with Johor and Cyberjaya, where constrained water availability limits sustainable growth opportunities.
In summary, while Johor and Cyberjaya have been instrumental in Malaysia’s digital infrastructure development, their mounting water resource limitations hinder their ability to meet the escalating demands of high-powered data centres. Southeast Asia’s broader water crisis among data centre host countries underscores the urgency of this issue. Tanjong Malim’s natural water resource base, combined with integrated renewable energy and access to the Sungai Samak Estate’s prime lands, presents Malaysia’s most viable and sustainable path forward for building a next-generation data centre hub. This model not only fulfils Asia’s surging digital infrastructure needs but also reflects a responsible commitment to environmental and social sustainability, as demonstrated through projects at Sungai Samak Estate and illuminated in the Tech Goldmine analysis.
Contact Info:
Name: Holly Lim
Email: Send Email
Organization: Sungai Samak Estate
Address: 2 Jalan Sempurna off Jalan Gombak , Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory 53000, Malaysia
Website: https://sgsamak.com
Source: NewsNetwork
Release ID: 89166942
Should you come across any errors, concerns, or inconsistencies within this press release's content, we urge you to reach out without delay by contacting error@releasecontact.com (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our committed team will promptly address your feedback within 8 hours and take appropriate measures to resolve any identified issues or guide you through the removal process. Providing accurate and dependable information remains our utmost priority.