Ireland's data centers used nearly 1 billion litres of water in 2023

Data centres in Ireland consumed almost a billion litres of water last year, according to The Journal. The bulk of that usage – more than 954 million litres – came from two large facilities: Meta’s campus in Clones and Equinix’s site in Dublin. This volume equals the annual water consumption of roughly 20,500 people and represents less than 0.3 % of the nation’s total water demand, a share described by the national water utility Uisce Éireann as “not a significant demand driver in public water networks.” By comparison, the pharmaceutical industry used over four billion litres of public water in the same period. Ireland’s low corporate‑tax regime continues to attract major tech firms such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which operate additional data‑centre sites across the country.