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Jul 9, 2024 / in Uncategorized
DATA CENTRE WATER USAGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

As of 2024, South Africa has a total of 61 data centers, making it the dominant player in the African data center market. These data centers are concentrated in key cities such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, and Stellenbosch.

Overall, Africa has around 87 colocation data centers spread across 15 countries. The main hubs for data center activity on the continent include South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Kenya, and Egypt.

The total daily water consumption of South Africa’s data centers is not explicitly detailed in available reports. However, general estimates for data centers can provide some insight. Hyperscale data centers, which are large facilities typically used by major cloud service providers, consume around 550,000 gallons (2.1 million liters) of water per day. Smaller wholesale and retail data centers, which are more common, use about 70,000 liters daily.

South Africa’s data center industry is growing, with significant investments from companies like Teraco, AWS, and Google. These facilities often implement water-intensive cooling systems, though there are increasing efforts to adopt more sustainable practices, such as using recycled water and improving cooling efficiency.

Given the scarcity of detailed, localized data, it is reasonable to estimate that South Africa’s data centers collectively use millions of liters of water daily, with larger facilities contributing significantly to this total. As the industry expands, so too will the need for sustainable water management practices to mitigate environmental impacts and ensure water availability.

Information provided by ChatGPT