Twenty of Amazon Web Services' (AWS) more than 100 data centers rely solely on treated sewage water, also known as recycled water, to cool the servers than run the AWS cloud. "People always make waste water," Amazon Water Sustainability Lead Will Hewes said. By "using that as a source of supply in the community, it's a real benefit in terms of climate adaptation and resilience," he told SDxCentral.

Hewes has worked in the water sector for decades, including on federal water policy and reform, climate adaptation and water infrastructure financing. Now he oversees AWS' water stewardships programs and the hyperscaler's strategy to return more water to the communities it impacts than its data centers consume by 2030.

Recycled water doesn't have a ton of use cases apart from data center cooling. Rather than consuming potable water to keep data centers running at optimal temperatures, "we want to be using recycled water whenever possible because that leaves cleaner, higher-quality water available for others," Hewes said. "It also creates a more resilient water supply for communities." The hyperscaler plans to continue scaling its use of recycled water in data centers over the next few years.

AWS' water stewardship efforts, which began in 2020, are a mix of projects within its data centers and in the communities where those data centers are located, like the six projects the company announced last week. "These replenishment projects bring water back to the communities in whatever form is most needed there," Hewes said.

Take Villanueva de Gallégo, a municipality located in the Spanish province of Zaragoza, Aragon. AWS has data center operations in this community, and Spain is one of the most water-stressed industrialized countries in the world, prompting the water loss reduction project in collaboration with FIDO Tech – a cloud-based water leak detection company that uses AWS cloud services. "We're integrating the cloud and what we really do best as AWS into our water stewardship program," Hewes said.

This is the first project Hewes has seen completed with actual results in the context of a corporate water stewardship program. On average, 30% of water leaks out of global water systems, and there's a significant carbon footprint associated with treating and transporting water. "This is some low hanging fruit, both from a climate adaptation and climate mitigation perspective, and it's something that we need to address," Hewes said. "It's a big challenge globally."

But it's the way in which AWS addressed the issue of water loss in Spain that makes this project so noteworthy. "We're not just bringing in funding. We're also bringing in tools based on, built on the [cloud] platform AWS operates globally," Hewes said. The hyperscaler's cloud-based technology and Fido's acoustic sensors help pinpoint where leaks pop up and prioritize the largest leaks.

Since November 2022, Fido's magnetic sensors attached to water system pipes and meters have identified 21 leaks in Villanueva de Gállego. And the project's prioritization capabilities helped the community reduce water loss by 8.7 million gallons each year, according to AWS. "No water utilities have enough money to go fix every single leak in their system. And so this type of data allows them to really go prioritize the ones that are going to make the biggest difference for them and for the community," he said.

"Water is precious. Using technology to find and fix leaks in our system is the smart way to save money, time and water for our community," Villanueva de Gállego Mayor Mariano Marcén said. "By knowing where to focus our attention and fixing the biggest leaks first, we can maximize the water we save and minimize the disruption for our town."

AWS expects its other water replenishment projects in Australia, India, Indonesia and the United States will help save 396 million gallons of water, and its full portfolio is estimated to return more than 1 billion gallons of water to local communities annually.