Many residents in Visakhapatnam fear the Google data centre will strain water and power resources, damage the environment and bring too few jobs in return
Visakhapatnam – Handcuffs encircle Google’s logo on one campaign poster, while another warns that people “cannot drink data”, as opposition mounts to the tech giant’s planned AI mega-facility in India.
Excavators have swung into action, clearing forest and farmland on the southeast coast for the $15 billion construction of Google’s largest data centre outside the United States.
The project at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state, a port often called Vizag, is championed by India as a cornerstone of its technological ambitions.
But many residents fear the data centre — one of several huge new tech sites in Vizag — will strain water and power resources, damage the environment and bring too few jobs in return.
Farmer Chandala Sadamma told AFP that when she sees the red-earth scars where her plot of mango and cashew trees once stood, “I feel like crying”.
She was paid more than $82,000 for the two-acre (0.8-hectare) stretch of land, but the transaction left a bitter taste.
“Some company came and, without showing any respect, they took the land and we accepted it,” the 50-year-old said.
Vizag is a landing point for submarine internet cables linking the country to Singapore, so for India, the location of the 600-acre site — more than 340 football pitches — is ideal.
The “AI Hub investment is a multi-decade commitment” carrying “an obligation to be a good neighbour”, said Alexander Smith, Google’s head of infrastructure and energy for Asia-Pacific.
“The watershed, the grid and the communities around our facilities must be better off for our being here.”
The Andhra Pradesh government told AFP that in addition to financial compensation, new housing is being built and handed over to people who had lived on the site.
Governments and tech firms worldwide are spending trillions of dollars on data centres — boxy buildings stuffed with racks of computer servers that power apps and AI tools.
But the developments have sparked backlash in many countries, with a Finnish authority recently ordering work to halt on two Google data centre sites pending mandatory environmental assessments.
Activists in Andhra Pradesh are also demanding a moratorium on new data centres across the state until independent environmental and social impact evaluations are published.
“The United States has a huge coast… They can simply set it up there,” Gutta Rohith of the local campaign group Human Rights Forum told AFP at a meeting of around 150 people.
Opposition to data centres, including in the United States, often takes aim at the use of local water resources to cool hot servers down.
Google said it will use “advanced” air cooling technology instead at the India hub, while the state plans six 1.2-gigawatt nuclear power plants as energy demand soars.
Still, water use worries residents, especially given plans for Vizag to become a tech megahub.
“They are saying that Google is being established for the education and employment opportunities of our children,” said shopkeeper Gubbala Ramanamma.
But “we are already struggling with water scarcity”, the 57-year-old said, standing beside a dry well.
Google said its data centre wi…