Isfahan, once the heart of Persian culture, was rocked on March 29 when a massive fire engulfed a local water pumping station. The blaze destroyed pipelines that transported water to Yazd province, about 300 kilometers southeast, cutting off supplies for nearly 500,000 people.
But the culprits were neither Israel nor the United States — but local residents. Farmers in Isfahan, angered by authorities diverting water from the Zayandeh Rud to Yazd, staged a violent protest, highlighting the country’s escalating water crisis. Iran International and other local outlets described the incident as part of a nationwide water shortage, calling it “unprecedented in severity.”
While water shortages may feel remote in countries like South Korea, where clean water flows freely from household taps, the problem is worsening globally. According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), 25 nations — home to a quarter of the world’s population — face extremely high water stress. About 4 billion people, or half the global population, endure water scarcity for at least one month each year.
And the crisis extends well beyond drinking water. Agriculture, livestock, power generation, and manufacturing industries are increasingly struggling with dwindling supplies. WEEKLY BIZ examined the causes behind the world’s growing thirst and its far-reaching consequences.
AI industry’s growing water footprint
Among the industries grappling with — and contributing to — this crisis is artificial intelligence. Data centers, which store, process, and manage the vast datasets powering AI models, consume enormous amounts of water for cooling and electricity generation. Cooling systems alone evaporate about 80% of the water they consume; the rest becomes too contaminated for reuse.
Microsoft’s water consumption surged 34% in 2022 as it expanded its data centers, reaching 1.7 billion gallons that year — enough to fill more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Google used even more, consuming 5.6 billion gallons, a 22% increase from the previous year.
A study by Shaolei Ren, an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside, found that each query to an AI chatbot like ChatGPT consumes between 7.6 and 29.9 milliliters of water, depending on the location of the server. In Arizona, for instance, it takes roughly one cup of water (200 milliliters) to process just six queries.
As water scarcity worsens near major data centers, public backlash is growing. In July 2023, protests erupted in Uruguay — facing its worst drought in 74 years — forcing Google to halt plans for a new data center. Similar concerns have surfaced in Chile and Malaysia.
Manufacturing, semiconductors also at risk
Water shortages are hitting water-intensive industries such as semiconductors and automobiles particularly hard. Semiconductor manufacturing relies heavily on clean water for gas purification and maintaining clean room environments. Samsung’s domestic plants in South Korea consume around 305,000 tons of water daily, while Taiwan’s TSMC uses nearly 99,000 tons at a single facility. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2040, 40% of global semiconductor plants will be located in areas facing severe water stress.
Automakers are also scrambling to manage water risks. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, carmakers in the European Union have cut water use per vehicle by 34.4% from 2005 to 2022. General Motors invested $57 million in water-saving infrastructure at its Mexican plant. Hyundai’s U.S. plant in Georgia secured final approval only after agreeing to a daily water consumption limit of 6.65 million gallons. In Taiwan, home to TSMC, a $545 million desalination plant is under construction.
Athletic brands like Adidas and Nike are also adapting, developing alternative materials to replace water-intensive cotton and pledging to halve water use by 2025.
Water crisis reshaping the food industry
Even consumer diets are shifting as water scarcity reshapes global food supply chains. Analysts suggest one reason McDonald’s is promoting chicken-based products like McChicken and McCrispy over traditional beef burgers is water efficiency. Beef requires 15,500 liters (about 4,100 gallons) of water per kilogram produced — nearly four times the water needed for chicken.
In Mexico, soaring water costs have halted business expansions. Constellation Brands, the brewer of Corona, abandoned a $660 million brewery project over water concerns, opting instead to build a new plant in a region with a more stable water supply, despite incurring an additional $1.3 billion in logistics and construction costs.
Decades of overconsumption catching up
Experts say much of today’s crisis is self-inflicted, driven by unrestrained water consumption. Only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater, and 99.23% of it is locked in glaciers. Water used for agriculture or industrial processes evaporates and eventually returns as rain — but most of it falls into the ocean.
Meanwhile, demand is surging. The world’s water use has more than doubled since 1960, according to the WRI. Supply, however, is shrinking as climate change accelerates evaporation. As global temperatures rise, more water is lost to the atmosphere.
The WRI warns that by 2050, even under conservative climate forecasts, an additional 1 billion people will face extreme water scarcity. The economic losses tied to water shortages are projected to reach $70 trillion in GDP terms by mid-century.
A brewing global security threat
The danger lies in water scarcity exacerbating inequality, with already water-poor regions suffering the most. The Middle East and North Africa, where 83% of the population faces extreme water shortages, are currently the worst affected. In South Asia, 74% of the population endures similar conditions.
Projections indicate developing nations will bear the brunt, as their expanding infrastructure demands even more water. The WRI estimates that by 2050, water demand in sub-Saharan Africa could rise by 163% from 2019 levels — nearly four times faster than Latin America, the next-highest region at 43%.
As scarcity deepens, experts warn it could trigger unrest, echoing the Arab Spring uprisings of the 2010s — but driven this time by water. German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle recently quoted Hamza Hamouchene, a founding member of the Algeria Solidarity Campaign (ASC), saying that failing to address water shortages and other climate threats could embolden extremist groups like the Islamic State.
