On 19 August 2026 the Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh told the Assembly that the proposed 6.5 GW AI data-centre ecosystem in Visakhapatnam would be given adequate water without affecting the water requirements of the people of the city. Set that promise against the state’s own VMRDA Draft Master Plan 2041. Small and large industries ask for 304 MLD and receive 303, or 99.67 per cent of what they want. Households ask for 305 MLD and receive 192, or 62.95 per cent, a shortfall of roughly 113 MLD every single day.
The minister put the data centres’ requirement at about 3 TMC a year, some 84.95 billion litres, an annual average of 233 MLD. The UN Economic Commission for Europe’s benchmark for traditional evaporative cooling, 25.5 million litres per MW per year, applied to 6,500 MW gives about 454 MLD, or 5.85 TMC. Green Visakha is asking which figure is the real one. The government’s answer has been a non-disclosure agreement.
