Why does deleting old emails and redundant photos help... save water and fight drought?

DNVN - The British government has officially launched a campaign calling on people to delete old emails and redundant photos to reduce pressure on the water supply system, in the context of the country facing a severe drought. What is the scientific explanation for this call?

Climate change causes Europe to suffer more summer droughts

As Europe is warming at twice the global average, causing many regions, especially the UK, to endure extreme heatwaves, drought conditions are becoming increasingly severe. The UK Environment Agency (EA) has recently declared drought conditions in five regions, including Yorkshire, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, while six other regions are facing prolonged dry weather.

Britain is experiencing a severe drought.

The agency also said the first six months of 2025 were the driest since 1976, with August seeing the fourth heatwave of the summer. The north-east and north-west of England recorded their driest first four months since 1929.

To mitigate the impact of water shortages, the UK government made a rather surprising call in July 2025: asking people to delete old emails and photos stored on cloud services. "Everyday choices like turning off taps when not in use or deleting old emails really help reduce pressure on water demand, helping to protect the health of rivers and ecosystems," said Helen Wakeham, director of water at the UK Environment Agency.

Does deleting old emails and redundant photos really save water?

When users send emails or save photos to the cloud, that data is processed and stored in data centers. These facilities house thousands of servers that run continuously, generating huge amounts of heat and requiring specialized cooling systems that consume huge amounts of water. It is estimated that data centers in the UK use nearly 10 billion liters of water a year, equivalent to the use of around 190,000 people. That number is growing as AI infrastructure expands.

He urged people to delete old emails to save water.

Recognizing the problem, major technology corporations such as Microsoft, Meta and Google have tested and deployed water-saving technologies in their data centers. Microsoft has tested placing data centers under the sea for cooling, Meta has deployed the StatePoint Liquid Cooling (SPLC) system that uses membrane filters to reduce water evaporation. Meanwhile, Google has committed to returning more water to the environment than it consumes by 2030 when using recycled wastewater to cool its facility in Douglas County, Georgia (USA).

Together with corporations, the results obtained in the days following the call from the UK Environment Agency proved that seemingly small things like deleting old emails and redundant photos can also save water. Water demand in the Severn Trent area was reduced by 20%.

EA's call reflects growing awareness of the impact of digital infrastructure on the environment and demonstrates that small actions from individuals add up to big change when taken collectively.

Hien Thao

Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/cong-nghe/vi-sao-xoa-email-cu-va-anh-thua-lai-giup-tiet-kiem-nuoc-chong-han-han/20250820095116416