Latest news with #ThamesWater
BBC News
31 minutes ago
- Business
- BBC News
Blackfriars Bridge undercroft could be skatepark or energy hub
A former rifle range and undercroft by Blackfriars Bridge could find a new use as a skatepark or energy site has been occupied since 2017 by Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd for the construction of the Thames Tideway will now return to either the City of London Corporation or Transport for London once it is determined which of the two bodies is the legal Water will manage the foreshore, which will include a café. The shooting range was shut down to allow for the construction of the tunnel and sits beneath the undercroft.A report by the corporation noted the undercroft was "historically associated with antisocial behaviour" and has been inaccessible, with hoardings around it for proposals have been put forward for the redevelopment of the site:A dedicated space for skateboarding and wheeled sportsAn energy centre delivering low-carbon heat Commercial options, such as kiosks and food and drink outletsA corporation spokesperson said the site was still being used to store materials related to the Tideway Tunnel.A further report detailing costs for each of the reuse options is to be presented to the City of London Corporation committee in early 2026.
Times
21 hours ago
- Business
- Times
Thirsty data centres are sucking up Britain's scarce water supplies
Britain's data centres are consuming close to ten billion litres of water a year at least as the country braces for widespread drought, The Times can reveal. Two regions are in drought, with more likely to follow, raising the possibility of summer hosepipe bans as rivers hit 'exceptionally' low levels, highlighting the squeeze on Britain's water supplies despite its rainy reputation. Yet there is no official estimate of how much water the nation's 450-plus data centres are using to keep their servers cool. The chairman of the Environment Agency (EA) has warned that England is heading for a national shortfall of five billion litres of water a day by 2055, more than a third of the 14 billion litres a day used now. But that is without factoring in the rapid rise of thirsty generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT. The British tech industry and the EA have been working in recent months to gauge water demand from data centres today and in years to come. Neither will publicly disclose a figure on data centres' water use. However, figures released under transparency laws suggest that water companies are already supplying at least almost ten billion litres a year to 231 data centres, the equivalent of 3,980 Olympic swimming pools. The snapshot, obtained by the technology campaign group, Foxglove, and The Times, suggests Thames Water is far and away the biggest supplier of water to data centres. About half of the UK's water companies were unable to provide figures to Foxglove, in part because data centres do not have to report their water usage. 'It is deeply alarming that over half our water companies have no clue how many data centres they supply, nor how much water they are hoovering up,' Donald Campbell, of Foxglove, said. This information void exists as the government eyes data centres as a totemic part of its economic growth plans. Labour has said AI will 'turbocharge' growth, with £39 billion committed for more data centres in the next five to ten years. Debate is also intensifying over the greater water demands of data centres running AI models. On June 10, Sam Altman, the OpenAI founder, mounted a defence of ChatGPT, saying an average user query required just one fifteenth of a teaspoon of water. So, what is the truth? Is the growth in data centres and AI a threat to Britain's water supplies, at a time when climate change is already increasing the risk of droughts? Most of the concern over data centres' environmental impact has focused on their energy use. Less understood is the impact of their water consumption. The Times's analysis has focused solely on water used directly for cooling the data centres themselves. While a small number are believed to use air cooling, most use water. The most water efficient are 'closed loop' systems, while the thirstiest are 'open loop' ones. The estimate of close to ten billion litres of water being used by about half of the UK's data centres is based on figures released under environmental information requests, The Times's conversations with individual water firms and, in the case of Thames Water, an unpublished report by the consultancy, Jacobs. The total is equivalent to the annual water use of 189,781 people, more than the population of Oxford. The tally is almost certainly a large underestimate. It covers only about half of the data centres and the figures for Thames Water are three years old. TechUK, the industry group, estimates there are 450 to 500 data centres in the UK. The group was unable to say what proportion uses each cooling technology. However, Luisa Cardani, TechUK's head of data centre programmes, said: 'Generally, you could argue that the newer data centres, especially when they are in water-constrained areas, will choose types of cooling like liquid cooling [closed loop] or direct to chip cooling [another approach] because it's more efficient.' Britain's data centres are mostly running servers powering websites, cloud storage and the latest hit series on Netflix. However, servers running AI models are much more water intensive. A study last year found ChatGPT uses four times as much water as previously thought. Some experts think the fears over water use are overwrought. Henry Shevlin, associate director at the University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, noted most things of economic value consume water, from agriculture to football matches, and data centres running AI models are neither an exception or an outlier. 'Is the juice worth the squeeze? To the extent that we do care about economic growth, we should be prioritising economic and resource-intensive activity in areas that are also going to give us big payoffs. Obviously AI has phenomenal potential here,' Shevlin said. Still, he said the tech industry should be more transparent about water use in Britain and the government could demand more openness. 'Revealing estimates of water usage and electricity usage are, let's be honest, they're not deep, sensitive corporate secrets,' he said. The result should be more water efficient data centres, Shevlin added. Anglian Water has even suggested data centres could be cooled with heavily treated effluent, known as recycled water, rather than water drawn from rivers and reservoirs. Growth in AI is 'likely to result in a large and rapid increase in the number of data centres in England', the Environment Agency said on June 17. The concern, it said, is many will be built by 2030, before new reservoirs and water transfers are complete. Britain's first new reservoir in more than three decades, Havant Thicket near Portsmouth, will not be full until 2031, for example. 'It is therefore critical that water availability is considered early in the planning stage [of data centres'], EA officials said. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has recently overruled local councils to give the green light for building new data centres, once at Iver in Buckinghamshire last December and this May for one at Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire. Water industry sources believe new data centres in the next five years could need the same amount of water as 500,000 people. Thames Water said southeast England was already water-stressed and the region was earmarked for a large proportion of proposed new data centres. 'This brings a challenge between safeguarding our finite [water] resources while supporting the UK's growth strategy,' a Thames Water spokesman said. Water UK, the industry body, said: 'We need planning hurdles cleared so we can build reservoirs quickly'. An EA spokesman said: 'We are working with the technology sector to understand their needs, to help develop sustainable solutions.' Campbell said: 'Water companies and the government are walking into this future with a blindfold on. Ministers and water companies need to wake up — the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google must not be given carte blanche to drain our rivers and streams.'
BBC News
3 days ago
- Climate
- BBC News
Watch: Water gushes from burst main in Oxford
A huge plume of water was sent gushing into the air when a main burst near a popular park in Water said its engineers responded to reports of the problem in Rymers Lane in the early hours of company said an emergency road closure had been put in place, with teams on site to "make the necessary repairs".It said engineers were working to stop the flow of water before locating and fixing the damaged section of pipe. "We would like to assure customers we are working to reopen the road as quickly and safely as possible and are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused," Thames Water added customers water supply had not been impacted. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Teddington Thames Water treated wastewater scheme plans go on show
A public consultation has begun into a water recycling scheme that would see treated wastewater pumped into the River Thames in south-west London. The Teddington Direct River Abstraction project is designed to provide 75 million litres of water each day for London during droughts. Under the plans, water would be transferred from the river to a reservoir to be added to the drinking water supply. The Thames would then be topped up with treated wastewater pumped in through an underground pipeline from a nearby sewage treatment plan has been criticised due to safety concerns, but Thames Water said the project was "essential to prevent taps from running dry" in future dry spells. The provider said the scheme was based on a "tried and tested" method and that the water would get an additional level of cleaning before it went back into the the coming weeks, Thames Water is to hold a series of local events to exhibit plans for the scheme as part of the consultation firm, which is the UK's largest water supplier, says it is encouraging customers and local communities to view the proposals and have a say on consultation comes weeks after the water company was fined a record £122.7m for breaching rules over sewage spills and shareholder payouts. 'Critical water security challenge' The stretch of the Thames is popular with swimmers, rowers and Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson previously said she was concerned by the plans and believed the scheme could damage the environment and human health. "Lots of people are very worried about the amount of sewage that is already going into the river," she told the BBC.A spokesperson for Thames Water said no untreated sewage would be added to the river under these provider's head of engagement, Leonie Dubois, said the project was necessary, as London faced a "critical water security challenge"."This spring has already broken records as the warmest and sunniest in over a century and has also been extremely dry, increasing the risk of drought."Our London drought resilience project is therefore essential to prevent the taps from running dry during increasingly frequent droughts."The public consultation will remain open until Tuesday 26 August.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
High Court to hear judicial review on Oxfordshire reservoir plan
The High Court will hear a judicial review brought against a water firm's plan to build one of the country's largest reservoirs later. Thames Water's £2.2bn South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO), would be created near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, to cope with increasing demand and climate project would cover an area the size of Gatwick Airport and the company said it would secure supply for 15 million charity CPRE Oxfordshire and water safety group Safer Waters have said it would devastate local ecology and livelihoods. They have also said it would increase the risk of flooding, squander billpayers' funds and be Water intends to submit an application to construct and maintain the reservoir next year. If that is granted, it hopes to start building in 2029 with the reservoir operational from water would supply customers in Oxfordshire and others in London and the South East, Thames Water said. It said it would "provide opportunities to create new habitats and increase biodiversity, as well as providing new leisure and recreation facilities". But Derek Stork, a director of Safer Waters, said the project was "a scandalous misuse of public money". "Instead of investing in essential sewage clean up and modern water reuse systems, Thames Water wants to build an untested bunded structure the height of an eight-storey building that puts communities at risk while lining shareholder pockets," he Warne, director of CPRE Oxfordshire, said: "The UK is already one of Europe's most wasteful water users per person – we currently reuse just 0.08% of urban wastewater, the lowest rate in Europe. "The government should prioritise leakage reduction, water reuse, and efficiency, not this vanity reservoir."Oxfordshire Liberal Democrat MPs Olly Glover, Layla Moran and Charlie Maynard said they supported the scheme being assessed at a public inquiry to ensure "meaningful public scrutiny". In January, Chancellor Rachel Reeves indicated government support for the was designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) earlier this month. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
