WATER POSITIVITY

Breaking down the numbers The scale of the challenge Veolia is trying to address is not trivial. Water scarcity is becoming a more realistic, more frightening prospect each year, with its effects already visible around the world, including in the unfolding war in the Gulf.

“ Water has erupted as a centre of conflict in the Middle East, important as oil, if not more,” Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia’ s CEO said at the event.

The tech sector is set to feel the squeeze. By 2030, the combined water consumption of data centres and semiconductor manufacturing is expected to equal that of 46 million people, an amount roughly equivalent to the combined populations of the New York, Los Angeles and Paris metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, global data centre capacity is projected to nearly triple over the same period, with facility numbers growing at around 11 % per year through 2034.

The semiconductor industry tells a similar story, with chip manufacturing expected to grow by 26 % in 2026 alone. This, at least in part, is due to a global trend towards domestic manufacturing, as countries look to reduce their reliance on trade with traditional electronics powerhouses like China.

But while the critical minerals that go into semiconductors are scarce, water scarcity is also increasingly becoming

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