JOHOR BARU: Despite Johor’s boom as a data centre hotspot, environmentalists are relieved with the state government’s move to disallow the setting up of Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centres in its bid to control heavy water usage.
“We cannot be complacent in our management of water resources, as we also need to cater to the needs of the people,” said Green Earth Society president P. Sivakumar.
“Last year alone, there were two major water disruptions in Johor which affected more than a million people.”
Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centres could use up to 50 million litres of water daily. This is estimated to be the capacity of about 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.
These centres are reported to consume much more water than Tier 3 and Tier 4 centres.
The move to stop approving applications for Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centres was announced by Johor housing and local government committee chairman Mohd Jafni Md Shukor about two months ago.
Sivakumar said the government should also consider relocating data centres around coastal areas in Johor so that water could be supplied by seawater desalination plants.
“There is a lot of development taking shape in Johor, especially in the south. Our water needs are not only for Johor, but we are also obligated to supply it to Singapore,” he added.
The state government, he said, should also do more to rehabilitate polluted rivers such as Sungai Tebrau and Sungai Skudai.
UTM Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security researcher Dr Zulfaqar Sa’adi described the state government’s decision as a move in the right direction to ensure the state’s energy and water resources are better managed.
He also suggested that these data centres be dispersed instead of being concentrated in one area, which would put a strain on water resources.
“It is good to move the data centres away from populated areas to Pontian and Kulai,” he said.
While such centres were good for the economy, he said efforts must be made to ensure there were adequate resources for the people as well.
“We need to get a hybrid system which uses both water and air to cool the data centres,” he said.
He spoke of the importance to manage the state’s water resources, which has a total of 16 dams.
“Climate change is causing the temperature to rise, which is related to the increase in forest and shrub fires around the country, and because of the rising heat, data centres will need more resources for their cooling mechanisms,” he said.
He said that effort should also be made to recycle water from industrial areas to cool the data centres.
Based on data, he said the wet months are from October to January, while February to April would be dry. From May to September, the weather would be scorching.
“Our projections show that climate change would intensify with temperatures rising and the dry period prolonging,” he said.
