Thailand’s data centre boom creates opportunities for water companies

Competing interests for available water

Much of the data centre boom is happening in the country’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), especially in the Chonburi and Rayong provinces. The boom is unsurprising given the rise in AI use and the policies, including tax incentives, on offer to attract investment. Development in the EECintensified in the late 2010’s and through into the current decade, with more than 48,000 hectares being developed to meet the goals set in Thailand 4.0, the national strategy designed to modernise the economy through innovation, technology and sustainable development, making it more competitive in the global market.

However, where there are data centres, there is fear of water shortages. Even with the cooling techniques in modern data centres requiring less water than previous incarnations, power generation for data centres remains a high consumer of water. 

Talking to Channel News Asia, Somnuck Jongmeewasin, a conservationist and research director at EEC Watch, highlighted that water tensions were high in the region even before the current data centre boom. “Even before the EEC, there was a troublesome lack of water in the eastern seaboard area,” he said. “In my local community, there’s a lack of water. If we want water, we have to buy and it’s very expensive.”

Jongmeewasin highlights the problems with water in the area. Farmers and fishermen are seeing agricultural land turned over to industry and the associated infrastructure, such as roads, that go with it.

In the same report, Threelathagorn Phanusamporn, a pig farmer and community activist in Chonburi, said: “The main issue in this area is water. We are short of water for consumption and water for agriculture. Villagers cannot quite produce enough to reach their target. There used to be paddy rice crops, but they don’t have them now.”

The current water situation in Thailand

Thailand has suffered the effects of climate change in recent years, especially from drought. At the start of 2026, the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Command (NDPMC) released a statement ordering all provinces to step up preparedness to prevent and address drought. The order stressed the need for efficient water management, especially for securing reserves for household consumption. Every province was instructed to draw up contingency plans and survey backup water sources to minimise impacts on the public.

According to the Thai Meteorological Department, the country experiences very dry conditions between mid-January and mid-May each year, with many areas facing drought conditions that lead to water shortages, both for daily use and for the agricultural industry.

As reported on the National Thailand website, the NDPMC issued the following instructions to all of the country’s provinces:

• Monitor and track water conditions by establishing a working group under provincial disaster prevention and mitigation operations centres to monitor weather data, runoff, rainfall, stored water levels, and water use across sectors, and to continuously analyse and assess local conditions.
• Prepare provincial drought contingency plans, setting clear risk-management measures aligned with local conditions, and conduct joint drills with relevant agencies.
• Integrate operational readiness across the military, administrative authorities, local administrations, the private sector, and charitable organisations—ensuring personnel, materials, equipment and disaster-response machinery (such as pumps and water trucks) are ready 24/7 to support water distribution.
• Inspect and repair communal water containers and village water-supply systems, ensuring they are functional, and draw up distribution plans to ensure adequate and equitable access to water.
• Strengthen public communications by issuing alerts and explaining government water-management measures across all channels, while promoting water-saving habits and encouraging low-water crops.
• When drought occurs or is expected, set up incident command centres at provincial and district levels, as well as local emergency operations centres—prioritising household water shortages first, preventing disease outbreaks common in the dry season, and strengthening public safety. Administrative authorities, together with the military and police, have been instructed to watch for dry-season crimes such as theft of water pumps and agricultural tools, and to engage communities to prevent conflicts over agricultural water use.

As well as devastating droughts, flooding is a regular threat and saltwater intrusion into rivers and along the coastline is worsening.

Water management in the EEC

Responding to requests from Mongabay, regarding water management proposals in the EEC, Chayan Muangsong, secretary-general, Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR), said in a statement: “The ONWR remains committed to ensuring sustainable water usage.”

It states that the OWNR is developing a master plan for water resource management across 22 river basins, two of which encompass the EEC area.

“This study is expected to be completed in 2027 with the objective of establishing a balanced framework between economic development and resource conservation,” he added.

The findings of the study will be used to provide policy recommendations and development options based on the potential and constraints of local natural resources, and will incorporate public participation. This will include targets for water quality management, waste management at the source, and water allocation to maintain ecosystems.

According to the statement, despite the recent droughts and preparedness warning, Thailand is currently considered a region with no water stress.

Regarding plans for ensuring the region’s infrastructure was capable of meeting demands, the secretary-general stated the government and the ONWR had a clear roadmap to support increasing demand, which included the following projects: 

• In 2025, two water production expansion projects reached completion, including the Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) Chonburi branch expansion (Phase 1) with a capacity of 96,000 m3/day, and the PWA Ban Chang branch expansion in Rayong with a capacity of 48,000 m3/day.
• By 2027, plans are in place to further develop two additional waterworks branches, namely the PWA Sriracha-Laem Chabang-Pattaya branch and the PWA Chonburi branch (Phase 2), which will increase the total water production potential by an additional 192,000 m3/day.

The OWNR stopped short of directly addressing the challenges introduced by data centres.

Conflicting interests equal opportunities for water companies

Whenever challenges arise, opportunities exist, and the data centre boom in Thailand and across Asia will be closely watched by water companies offering solutions. 

Jongmeewasin, who believes official predictions of future water demand in the ECC have been grossly underestimated, has called for the widespread adoption of 6Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink, redesign and regulation. He told Channel News Asia: “Imagine if everyone could recycle 20 per cent, you can drop the demand for water a lot. We can have ‘new water’.”

And these 6Rs present opportunities that are being implemented by data centre operators elsewhere. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the companies reportedly involved in the current data centre boom in the EEC, has pledged to expand its use of recycled water in data centres in the USA from 24 to 120 locations. The company believes this move will help to preserve more than 530 million gallons of fresh drinking water annually, which is enough to fill about 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools each year.

In Asia, the company has already announced plans for a data centre in Hong Kong to become the city's first to use recycled water for cooling operations. It believes this will save enough freshwater to meet the daily consumption needs of more than 3,000 Hong Kong residents. To realise the project, AWS is working with the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG) and will use water recycled from a government-run water reclamation plant.

With a goal of becoming water positive by 2030, AWS is also heavily involved in wider water stewardship programmes, including community projects aimed at conserving and replenishing water in local watersheds.

It is possible that the data centre boom will add some stress to water supply in Thailand’s EEC region, but it also offers opportunities for reviewing water management practices and infrastructure health, which in turn, provide potential opportunities for companies offering solutions to water’s tough challenges.