Its a brutally hot August across the world, but especially in Europe where high temperatures have caused wildfires and droughts. In the UK, the water shortage is so bad that the government is urging citizens to help save water by deleting old emails. It really helps lighten the load on water hungry datacenters, you see.The suggestion came in a press release posted on the British governments website Tuesday after a meeting of its National Drought Group. The release gave an update on the status of the drought, which is bad. The Wye and Ely Ouse rivers are at their lowest ever recorded height and five areas are officially in drought, with six more experiencing prolonged dry weather following the driest six months to July since 1976, according to the release. It also listed a few tips to help people save on water.The tips included installing a rain butt to collect rainwater for gardening, fixing leaks the moment they happen, taking shorter showers, and getting rid of old data. Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems, the press release suggested.Datacenters suck up an incredible amount of water to keep their delicate equipment cool. The hotter it is, the more water it uses and a heatwave spikes the costs of doing business. But old emails lingering in cloud servers are a drop in the bucket for a data center compared to processing generative AI requests.A U.S. A Government Accountability Office report from earlier this year estimated that 60 queries of an AI system consumed about a liter of water, or roughly 1.67 Olympic sized swimming pools for the 250,000,000 queries generated in the U.S. every day. The World Economic Forum has estimated that AI datacenters will consume up to 1.7 trillion gallons of water every year by 2027. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has disputed these estimates, saying that an average ChatGPT query uses roughly one fifteenth of a teaspoon of water.Downing Street announced plans in January to turbocharge AI in the U.K. The plan includes billions of pounds earmarked for the construction of massive water-hungry datacenters, including a series of centers in Wales that will cost about $16 billion. The announcement about the AI push said it will create tens of thousands of jobs. It doesnt say anything about where the water will come from.In America, people are learning that living next to these massive AI data centers is a nightmare that can destroy their air and water quality. People who live next to massive Meta-owned datacenters in Georgia have complained of a lack of water pressure and diminished quality since the data centers moved in. In Colorado, local government and activists are fighting tech companies attempting to build massive data centers in a state that struggled with drought before the water-hungry machines moved in.Like so many other systemic issues linked to climate change and how people live in the 21st century, small-scale personal solutions like delete your old emails wont solve the problem. The individual water bill for a persons old photos is nothing compared to the gallons of water required by large corporate clients running massive computers.We are grateful to the public for following the restrictions, where in place, to conserve water in these dry conditions, Helen Wakeham, the UK Environment Agencys Director of Water, said in the press release. Simple, everyday choicessuch as turning off a tap or deleting old emailsalso really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife.Representatives from the UK Government did not immediately return 404 Medias request for comment.