Taps Run Dry in Bakau Serip
"Not a single drop has come through our taps for the last three months," protester Dewi Susanti said. "Our water supply had been reliable until the data centres came." Her village, Bakau Serip, now depends on tanker trucks that supply what she calls "dirty, cloudy and smelly" water. "Money that should be used to buy rice is now spent on water drums," she says. Her husband has to stay up overnight to collect water and then go straight to work.
Batam's water utility said it is working to improve supply but did not say whether the disruption is linked to demand from the data centres. BP Batam, the agency overseeing trade and industry, blamed a prolonged dry spell and denied claims that water meant for homes is being sent to data centres.
This isn't the first protest. After demonstrations in August and September, authorities told firms opening data centres on the island that they must build their own desalination plants rather than rely on reservoirs for freshwater. Locals still worry about competing with servers for water. The water utility had earlier said it might consider measures like cloud seeding if the shortage continues.
Why the Water Is So Scarce
Batam has no natural freshwater sources, so its 1.3 million people depend on rainwater collected in six artificial reservoirs. Shortages are routine, but this year is worse, possibly because of a historic "super" El Niño. Simulations by local environmental non-profit Akar Bhumi Indonesia suggest the Nongsa reservoir, which supplies Bakau Serip, could dry up within a month without rain.
It is unclear how much water or electricity Batam's data centres actually use. Agus Hasan, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, says reliable data on data centre water use in Indonesia is scarce, partly because companies treat it as proprietary. "We should build [data centres] rationally, transparently, and responsibly, and insist on seeing the numbers," he says, warning that people kept in the dark while their taps run dry "will push back, and rightly so."
Backlash against data centres is growing from the US to the UK to parts of Asia as tech companies pour billions into AI infrastructure. People worry about the windowless buildings, constant noise, all-night security lights and strain on water and energy. Electricity runs the machines, but water keeps them from overheating through elaborate cooling systems. US research suggests a typical data centre uses about 300,000 gallons a day, roughly what 1,000 US households consume. According to Malaysia's central bank, a larger 50MW facility could use as much water as 2,200 households a day and enough electricity to power 22,000 homes.
A Boom Fuelled by Singapore
Authorities in Batam have approved 10 data centres, six of them in Nongsa Digital Park. Two are running and a third is under construction, with at least six more under review. Official figures put investment at more than $6.7bn (£5.1bn) as of mid-2026, driven partly by demand from Singapore, an hour away by ferry. Singapore paused data centre construction in 2019 over land and energy constraints, then lifted the ban in 2022 after introducing new efficiency standards, which pushed investors to look elsewhere. It has long promoted the Riau Islands, which include Batam, and Malaysia's Johor state as "complementary" regions. Johor approved projects worth tens of billions, but residents soon complained about noise, dust and water shortages, and the state has since tried to regulate water and electricity use.
Batam is just as attractive to investors from the US, China, Australia and Singapore, thanks to low operating costs, closeness to Singapore and links to major subsea cable routes. Nongsa hosts a 13,000-sq-m data centre by Hong Kong-based private equity firm Gaw Capital and Indonesian developer Sinar Primera. In April, Singapore's DayOne signed a deal with an Indonesian state utility to build one of the country's largest data centres, with around 450MW of capacity, enough for 350,000 average households. In June, DayOne, chip maker Nvidia and Australian AI start-up Firmus Technologies announced a 360MW "AI factory." By 2030, official estimates say data centre power demand in Batam will pass 1,100MW, enough for nearly a million homes.
Residents want their needs put first. "Don't just sit at the top and keep approving these projects. Come down here and see for yourselves what we are wrestling with," says Marlinda of the Sei Beduk district, which also faces shortages. Another resident said, "Don't make billion-rupiah investments while ordinary people are made to suffer... We are not asking for anything extravagant. We just want our water supply restored."
