- England’s drought has been declared significant national after the sixst months since the start of the files in 1976
- The British government urges the public to remove the old files as part of a national water conservation strategy
- Hosepipe prohibitions remain in place while tanks across England drop to alarming seasonal levels
The British government has proposed an unconventional means of contributing to the conservation of water during the country’s drought – remove the old emails and photos.
The suggestion came from the national drought group, which includes government agencies, water companies and environmental experts.
The current drought in England has been declared a “national incident” after the sixth months since 1976.
Six months of extremely drought level alert
The reasoning behind the advice is linked to the operation of the data centers, which support services such as e-mail accommodation, cloud storage and messaging services.
These installations use large volumes of water to cool the servers and maintain optimal performance, therefore by reducing the quantity of stored data, the argument, the demand on the capacity of the data center could be lowered, which could reduce water consumption.
However, the real effect of these personal digital cleanings is uncertain.
While data centers consume large quantities of water, in particular in high density IT operations, experts have not presented clear evidence that the deletion of small amounts of personal data reduces my cooling needs.
Critics suggest that structural changes, such as reducing leaks and improving water infrastructure, would have a more immediate and tangible impact.
Drought has already caused hosepipe prohibitions in certain parts of the Yorkshire, Southeast and other affected regions.
The tanks fell to 67.7% on average in England, well below the standard of early August by more than 80%.
Some are now less than 50%, rivers flows at historically low levels in certain areas.
Prolonged dry conditions and several heat waves have aggravated the situation, affecting agriculture, fauna and public water supply.
Water companies have intensified leaks repairs, some stating more than 800 each week, and smart meters are used to identify problems.
Public awareness campaigns have encouraged traditional water saving actions such as taking shorter showers, repairing fleeing toilets and rainy water collection for the use of the garden.
The inclusion of a digital storage cleaning in official conservation messaging reflects a wider recognition than water consumption is linked not only to domestic and industrial activities, but also to infrastructure supporting online life.
The growing demand for storage of the cloud and generative AI has added to the charge on data centers, and environmental reports have shown measurable use of water from AI processing tasks.
The question of whether the deletion of old files will have an impact on the water supply remains open to the question.
However, England has an urgent need for a solution for drought, and small daily actions, whether at home or online, are part of the collective effort to protect the country’s tense water resources.
“Simple and daily choices, such as the deactivation of a tap or the removal of old emails, also helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and fauna,” said Helen Wakeham, Director of Water at the Environmental Agency.
