非洲各地对于数据中心潜在的用水量日益感到担忧。近期，多个民间社会团体向南非人权委员会提交了一份请愿书，强调了在一个已经拥有60个数据中心且正遭受气候变化引发的干旱困扰的国家，人们对数据中心耗水问题的认知严重不足。
Concerns are rising in Africa about the potential water use by data centers. A recent petition by a collection of civil society groups to the South African Human Rights Commission highlighted concerns over the lack of awareness of water consumption in a country that already hosts 60 data centers and is struggling with climate-change-induced drought.
大型数据中心每天的耗水量可高达500万加仑；一项关于非洲数据中心用水量的最新研究显示，ChatGPT-4生成一份10页的文档需要消耗多达60升水，相当于一台洗衣机一个周期的用水量。
Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day; a recent study modelling water use in African data centers found that ChatGPT-4 used up to 60 liters of water — or a standard washing machine cycle — to produce a 10-page paper.
尽管数据中心用水是全球性问题，但非洲对气候变化的影响尤为脆弱。
While water usage by data centers is a global problem, Africa is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
参与请愿的民间组织“公开秘密”（Open Secrets）调查负责人迈克尔·马尔尚（Michael Marchant）向Semafor表示，这些站点的资源密集程度在许多方面堪比采掘业，人们担心数据中心，尤其是超大规模数据中心，会因监管缺失而带来风险。
“You are introducing sites which are resource intensive enough to be in many ways comparable to extractive industries,” Michael Marchant, head of investigations at civil society group Open Secrets, which was among the petitioners, told Semafor. “We see the risk of data centers, especially hyperscale, falling through the cracks.”— Paige Bruton