Lower thirds:

00:01 Report by / Shubhangi Derhgawen
00:23 Kanta Devi
02:19 Shalu Agarwal / Council on Energy, Environment and Water

Script:

00:00
This is how Kanta Devi begins her day: carrying water home, one bucket at a time. 

Although her family of six live in the district of GB Nagar -  right on Delhi's border,  they have no piped water. They live off just six buckets a day.

00:20
+++ SOT Kanta Devi, Resident +++
"We use this water for everything, bathing, washing clothes, cooking, and drinking. We  use it to wash vegetables.   Our cooking water is also our drinking water." 

00:36
A government tanker brings water here at unscheduled times once a day. When it arrives, the street fills with queues. For hours afterwards, women walk back and forth, hauling buckets. 

Authorities once planned to supply 50 million litres of water from the River Ganges per day to this area through a pipeline. But in July 2025, they shelved the project, saying the region's current supply was already under pressure. 

But just a kilometre away from Kanta's home, another project is moving ahead and the state government has promised it a round-the-clock water supply.

A 50 Megawatt data centre jointly controlled by India’s Adani Group and the US-based operator EdgeConneX is being built here.

The joint venture website says it will reduce intensive water use and employ air-cooled chillers in place of water-cooled chillers.  Construction workers told us off camera they have installed borewells inside the complex.

To clarify how water is being distributed, we called and even visited the Uttar Pradesh Water Corporation, the agency responsible for water supply and pipeline infrastructure in the area. No-one would reply to our queries. 

India hopes to become a hub for artificial intelligence, and data centres are a key element to Delhi's ambitions. Shalu Agarwal is the director of one of India's leading climate think tanks and warns that unregulated growth could have consequences. 

02:18
+++ SOT Shalu Agarwal, CEEW +++ 
"There is a lot of emphasis on fiscal, tax, and land-related incentives to attract data centres in different states, with little focus, and in some cases no focus, on sustainability metrics."

02:35
In GB Nagar groundwater levels have dropped significantly over the last few years, as more water is being taken out than nature can replenish. The new data-centre will likely only accelerate the pace.

But here in GB Nagar  every day still begins the same way, with containers of water and the long walk home.

END