Data Centres and Water

Key policy updates, resources and more on this emerging key customer segment are presented below. These items may be of general interest and WSAA takes no responsibility for this content or its reliability.

Australian policy frameworks and documents (federal and state):

• National Cabinet, 26 August 2026 – Communique
• ACT Government announcement, 26 August 2026 – Providing a clear framework for data centres in the ACT
• WA Legislative Council, 20 August 2026 – Inquiry into AI for Western Australia
• SA Government, 20 August 2026 – Royal Commission into AI
• City of Melbourne, 19 August 2026 – Data Centres and AI Infrastructure Position Paper (Consultation closes 30 September 2026, consider final paper February 2027)
• Tasmanian Legislative Council, 18 August 2026 – Inquiry into AI Data Centres in Tasmania (Submissions due 21 September 2026)
• NSW Government, 17 August 2026 – NSW Data Centre Guidelines
• South Australian Government, 23 June 2026 – South Australia Data Strategy 
• Senator Tim Ayres, 11 June 2026 – Speech at Data Centre Power and Water Summit 
• Victorian Government 2026 – Victorian Industry Water Connection Guide 
• Victorian Government, Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan
• Sydney Water – Data Centres web page
• Infrastructure NSW, March 2026 – Data Centres Consultation Paper
• Federal Parliamentary Inquiry, May 2026 – Artificial Intelligence and Data Centres
• NSW Parliamentary Inquiry, January 2026 – Data Centres
• Australian Government (Department of Industry, Science and Research) – National AI Plan
• Australian Government (Department of Industry, Science and Research) – Expectations for Data Centre/AI Infrastructure Developers

Australian/global reports:

• WSAA 8 December 2025 – Data Centres and Water in Australia – A resource for sustainable data centre development
• American Water Works Association, 28 October 2025 – Cooling the Cloud: Water Utilities in a Data Driven World
• Global Water Intelligence and Xylem, January 2026 – Watering the New Economy – Managing the Impacts of the AI Revolution
• Global Water Intelligence, January 2026 – Nature Based Solutions in Data Centre Water Projects (requires subscription)
• Veralto, 2025 – Water Sustainability in Data Centres 
• Houston Advanced Research Centre, 21 January 2026 – The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply

Media articles (Australian/global):

• Inside Water 14 August 2026 – ‘National data centre water rules put potable supply on notice’
• Data Center Knowledge – ‘Evaporative Cooling in Data Centers: Why the Industry Hesitates to Move On’ – June 2026
• Australian Financial Review (Google Opinion Piece), 29 June 2026 – Doing Data Centres the Right Way
• World Resources Institute, April 2026 – Laying Groundwork for Water and Climate Resilience Across Value Chains
• Global Data Center Hub, September 2025 – From CRAC to Liquid: Why Cooling Is Now the Biggest Risk (and Opportunity) in Data Centers
• Data Center Knowledge, October 2025 – Data Center Cooling Methods: Costs vs. Efficiency vs. Sustainability
• Global Data Center Hub, January 22, 2026 – The AI Data Center Crisis No One is Talking About
• Data Center Knowledge. November 2025 – AWS Outage: What Are the Lessons for Enterprises?
• Data Center Knowledge, November 2025 – 4 Strategies for Eliminating Data Center Water Pollution

WSAA articles, submissions WSAA media releases:

• WSAA Media Release, 17 August 2026 – NSW sets clear goalposts for sustainable data centre growth
• WSAA Media Release, 13 August 2026 – National water use measures needed for new data centre developments
• WSAA submission, 10 July 2026 – Submission to IPART’s review of developer charges for metropolitan water businesses
• WSAA submission, 26 March 2026 – Submission to NSW Upper House Parliamentary Inquiry into data centres 
• WSAA 8 December 2025 – Media release New report calls for efficiency standards for water use in data centres
• WSAA 8 December 2025 – Data Centres and Water in Australia – A resource for sustainable data centre development