Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young member of the United States Congress known for her voice of courage and justice, arrived in Parliament on May 20 carrying two bottles of muddy water. While speaking at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing, she held up the bottles filled with dirty, brownish water and said: ‘This is the drinking water currently being supplied to the people of Morgan County in Georgia. This happened shortly after the construction of a “Meta” data centre. The only difference between clean water and this water is that data centre.’
Earlier this month, the United States administration introduced a law allowing large data centres to proceed with construction activities even before receiving final environmental clearances. Alexandria made this illustrative speech to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s position that such activities would cause no harm to human health or the environment. She questioned whether drinking water safety was being compromised in the rush to facilitate the construction projects of major tech companies and also demanded an urgent investigation into how large-scale AI-based technological developments are affecting local communities.
While bold voices are being raised in their own countries for the safety of people and the environment against technology giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft, a troubling report is emerging from India: in Tharluva village near Visakhapatnam, hundreds of families are on the brink of eviction. The eviction is being carried out for the construction of Google’s largest data centre outside the United States. The land, which was allotted 57 years ago during the tenure of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to landless Dalit communities, and on which people have lived for decades cultivating mango and cashew trees through hard work, is now set to be taken away. Apart from displacement, loss of homes and agricultural livelihoods, and environmental degradation, local residents see no benefit from the data centre. They allege that the process is being pushed through village councils without proper discussion or transparency.
Environmental activists and local residents express concern that, since the data centre requires vast amounts of water and energy, its establishment will deplete groundwater resources in the region, pushing Tharluvada and nearby villages into severe drinking water scarcity and environmental pollution. They also allege that the project was approved without proper public hearings being conducted. Even an Instagram video posted by the international media collective ERC on the issue was reportedly blocked following government instructions.
N. Chandrababu Naidu, during his earlier tenure as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, had also invited multinational IT companies to the state. Thousands of acres of land, including Waqf properties, were allotted to some of the world’s richest companies at nominal rents. When one compares the financial gains made by those companies with what the region actually received in return, the reality behind the inflated claims of IT-driven development becomes clear.
For a long time, we have held the belief that the IT industry is pollution-free and environmentally friendly simply because it does not emit the kind of black smoke released by factories. However, this situation should serve as an opportunity to critically examine its excessive energy consumption, as well as the water and noise pollution associated with it. Only if Members of Parliament or political leaders in India come forward in the same way as courageous figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the United States will this become possible.