There have been more headlines about the effect of data centres on water worries, this time in Poland, where a data centre announced for a suburb of the capital Warsaw has been met with protests from residents.

Developed by Sien Real, a joint venture of Polish construction firm Budimex and the Spanish infrastructure operator Ferrovial, the facility will house four buildings on a 45,305 square metre plot. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.

As industry website Data Centre Dynamics notes, there is as yet no information about the site’s compute capacity. However, local press has been total that the site’s water usage is expected to be equivalent to that of a housing estate of up to 3,000 people.

Budimex insists it is paying particular attention to minimizing the facility’s impact on local residents by ensuring it uses features that mitigate water consumption, noise, and dust emissions and deploys cooling and emergency power systems that meet the highest standards for modern data centres.

As well as local supplies, a 1,102.33 cubic metre retention reservoir is to be built to store excess rainwater and meltwater. Its contents will be discharged into the local sewer system or used to water the site’s landscaped areas.

Despite these assurances, some residents fear that the project will exacerbate water shortages in the nearby commuter town of Józefosław. Earlier this year the water pressure in the town dropped to low levels every evening. Residents demanded a review of network capacity in light of new housing estates being developed in the area.

Warsaw is Poland’s largest data centre market, with 45 facilities listed in and around the city and more on the way.

Water and power are major concerns for many residents of areas near proposed data centres – and not just in Poland. India, South Africa, Israel and Malaysia are among the many regions where the ongoing rush to plan and construct new facilities is now being examined more closely by both regulators and the public.