Another Take: Why is drought-hit Brazil saying ‘yes’ to AI data centers?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on July 7, 2025. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.
When AI data centers come to town, companies promise jobs and opportunity. But what about all the water needed to keep data centers running? In one drought-stricken community in Brazil, residents must weigh the choices. How do communities balance the economic boost and environmental cost of hosting water-reliant data centers?
In this episode:
- Laís Martins (@laismartins.com), Investigative Journalist
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Tamara Khandaker. The original production team was Marcos Bartolomé, Haleema Shah, Remas Alhawari, Manny Panaretos, Mariana Navarrete, Kylene Kiang, and our guest host, Kevin Hirten.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hey, I'm Tamara Kondokar, and this is another take, where we resurface episodes from the archives. |
| 0:18.5 | As AI is quietly embedding itself into every aspect of our lives, its hidden costs are also coming into focus. |
| 0:26.6 | One of the least visible is the energy used to power this technology. All over the world, new data centers are putting a strain on water and energy systems, and many of them are in |
| 0:39.3 | regions facing drought. Today we're bringing back an episode that zooms in on Brazil, why it's |
| 0:47.0 | become such a hotspot for these data centers and what local communities stand to lose. |
| 0:53.3 | This episode originally aired July 7, 2025. |
| 0:57.7 | All dates and references are from that time. |
| 1:17.8 | Today, data centers for AI are quietly sucking the world dry. |
| 1:21.1 | The more energy use, the more water you use. |
| 1:25.9 | Can Brazilians react before big tech dries up the rivers? |
| 1:30.9 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is the take. |
| 1:43.2 | AI can pretty much do everything. It can mimic my voice. It can even write a script for this episode. |
| 1:45.6 | Sure. Here's a script for your episode about data centers in Brazil. But all that convenience comes with a hidden cost. Huge |
| 1:52.2 | computing power needs huge infrastructure. And all of that comes from what are called data |
| 1:57.8 | centers. And they are thirsty, both for energy and for fresh water. |
| 2:03.4 | Every 20 to 50 queries to a large AI model like ChatGPT can consume about 500 milliliters of water, |
| 2:10.7 | roughly the size of a standard water bottle. This is happening all over the world, and one of the |
| 2:16.1 | hotspots is Brazil. |
| 2:18.0 | The progressive government of Lula de Silva wants Brazil to host as many data centers as possible. |
| 2:24.4 | They speak of this window of opportunity that Brazil has to take advantage of. |
| 2:28.8 | It should close soon. That's kind of what they say. |
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