Data centres threaten water and power supplies in SA

While everybody has heard something about the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), few in this country have been paying attention to the advent of data centres – the water and power-hungry plants which house the servers which feed the insatiable AI beast.

It’s quite disturbing, therefore, to read in our story today that there are already more than 60 of these centres already up and running here, making South Africa home to most of these on the African continent.

Activists in the Western Cape have been protesting about the construction of new data centres in a country where the problems of adequate water and power supplies are painfully evident.

Housing Assembly (HA) movement activist Kenneth Matlawe said the construction of such centres “affects socioeconomic development because any form of development must benefit the community”.

HA and overseas groups are challenging Cape Town’s rezoning of land acquired by US-based Equinix, which operates around 280 data centres worldwide.

The rezoning could open the way for Equinix to develop land near the international airport, although the company had no immediate plans to do so.

Whatever happens with this development, the rest of us should start paying attention to what is happening around us. Before it’s too late…