Amazon declares water‑positive status for Indian operations

Amazon announced that its operations in India have become water positive, meaning the company returns more water to local communities than it consumes across its offices, warehouses and data centres. The milestone was reached a year ahead of its internal schedule through reduced water use at facilities and external projects such as watershed restoration and efficient irrigation. Amazon also noted that its Indian data centres do not use water for cooling, aligning with a broader goal to make all data‑centre operations water positive by 2030.

The achievement comes as shareholders and environmental activists increase scrutiny of the resource footprint of AI‑driven data centres. India faces acute water scarcity, holding only 4 % of global freshwater despite housing 18 % of the world’s population, with a severe El Niño weakening monsoon rains and prompting rationing in states like Karnataka and Maharashtra. Amazon has pledged to invest more than $35 billion in India by 2030 to expand AI capabilities and cloud services, including an $8.2 billion AWS investment in Maharashtra.