Google’s $15 billion India data center plan sparks water fears

Work on Google’s planned $15 billion data center hub in Visakhapatnam was visible on a hillside stripped to red earth and terraced for construction. The 1-gigawatt AI complex, being developed with India’s Adani Group, has turned into a high-stakes dispute over water use, land disruption and wildlife in Andhra Pradesh.

The project’s scale marks a sharp escalation from Google’s earlier southern India plan. In July 2025, the company had outlined a $6 billion data center investment for the region, a figure that later widened to the $15 billion hub now associated with Visakhapatnam. Later coverage put the project’s job potential at as many as 1.88 lakh positions, a promise that gives state officials a powerful economic argument as they court technology investment and infrastructure spending.

That pitch has run headlong into local resistance. Environmentalists and activists have taken the fight to the streets and the courts, warning that the project could worsen Visakhapatnam’s water stress. Critics including Jal Biradari have said the facility could aggravate the city’s daily water shortfall. The dispute has also centered on the site’s proximity to a wildlife sanctuary, with opposition framing the project as more than a single industrial buildout.

The legal pressure is already visible. Pakistan Today said the project faced court challenges and protests over water shortages and its location near a wildlife sanctuary, with the next High Court hearing set for August 24, 2026. The Straits Times similarly described the backlash as opposition over water use and impacts on nearby wildlife habitat. In an October 18, 2025 post, the Human Rights Forum said it was deeply alarmed by the Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to enable construction of the Google-Adani data center complex in Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli districts.

Andhra Pradesh has pushed back. Reuters-linked posts said the state government described activists’ concerns as incorrect and misleading, a sign that officials see the project as a major industrial prize rather than an environmental liability. Google, for its part, says on its water stewardship page that data centers require cooling and that it aims to balance energy and water use in a climate-conscious way.

The physical setting makes the fight especially sensitive. Later activist material focused on alleged hill cutting and stream disruption near Simhachalam, Kambalakonda Hills and Mudasarlova Reservoir, feeding fears that the project could affect local water sources as well as habitat. The clash in Visakhapatnam has become a test case for whether the AI and data-center boom will face the same scrutiny over water, land and ecology that other heavy industries already do.