Can’t cook or shower: Indonesians take aim at data centers

Residents of Batam, an Indonesian island near Singapore, held spontaneous protests outside Nongsa Digital Park after taps ran dry, making cooking and bathing difficult. Juniardi Adinda Sembiring Gurukinayan, a 54-year-old tradesman, said he sometimes skipped showers and could not cook rice or vegetables without water. Sulastri, 38, said the crisis had lasted about a year and worsened in the past six months, describing government tanker water as "smelly" and "yellowish." Some coastal villagers in Mata Ikan resorted to using seawater for hygiene.

The local water utility, Air Batam Hilir (ABH), attributed the shortage to a prolonged drought driven by low rainfall and a strong El Nino cycle, which left the Nongsa Reservoir very low, compounded by an electrical fault that further disrupted supply. ABH spokesman Ginda Alamsyah said the tech park draws water from a different source, the Duriangkang Reservoir. Batam Mayor Amsakar Achmad, who also heads the BP Batam authority, said in October that the disruption "was not caused by data centres or AI or investors entering that sector" but by weather and climate.

In late September, authorities ordered developers to build seawater desalination plants for cooling. Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital Partners, one of the park's owners, said it was "aware of the distress and frustration expressed by local residents" and that its facilities use "closed-loop" water systems that need less fresh water. Companies with operating or planned data centers in Nongsa Digital Park include BW Digital, DayOne, and Princeton Digital Group.

The friction reflects a broader trend in Southeast Asia. Data center capacity in the region is projected to triple from 2025 levels by 2030, driven by a tenfold surge in AI use, according to a KPMG report. The boom in Indonesia and Malaysia accelerated after Singapore halted new developments between 2019 and 2022. In Malaysia's Johor region, capacity has grown from 10 megawatts five years ago to 2.1 gigawatts today, according to researcher James Chai of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Malaysia's deputy prime minister told parliament in July that data centers are forecast to account for a third of the country's energy use by 2035. In Kota Damansara, outside Kuala Lumpur, a developer withdrew its planning application in August after residents gathered more than 9,000 petition signatures. Retiree Jahaidi Harun, 72, said, "Data centers use a lot of water. If the rain doesn't come for one month, we all feel it."