Batam Residents Protest Data Centers as Water Outages Disrupt Daily Life
Residents in Batam, Indonesia, have protested near a growing data-center hub after water outages made cooking and bathing difficult. The local utility cited drought and an electrical fault, while the city’s mayor said the disruption was caused by weather and climate factors, not data centers.
Residents of Batam, Indonesia, protested near a data-center complex after municipal water outages disrupted cooking and bathing, as the island attracts facilities serving the artificial intelligence boom.
Some residents said they had to skip showers when taps ran dry. In nearby Mata Ikan village, residents used seawater to wash after using the toilet, protester Rahmat said.
The local water utility operator attributed the shortage to a long drought and an electrical fault that disrupted supply systems. Batam Mayor Amsakar Achmad said in October that the water disruption was “not caused by data centres or AI or investors entering that sector.”
At the worst point, dozens of residents staged spontaneous protests outside Nongsa Digital Park, a cluster of data centers and other facilities designated as a special economic zone.
Residents believe the shortages are linked to data-center construction, said Juniardi Adinda Sembiring Gurukinayan, a 54-year-old tradesman. He said recent outages meant “sometimes I skipped my shower.”
“We cannot eat rice without water. We cannot cook vegetables without water,” he said.
Ginda Alamsyah, a spokesman for water utility operator Air Batam Hilir, said drought had lowered nearby Nongsa Reservoir levels, while an electrical fault further disrupted the supply system. An industry source said the tech park gets water from Duriangkang Reservoir.
Authorities told developers in late September to build seawater desalination plants for cooling, aiming to avoid placing more pressure on local water supplies.
Companies with operating or planned data centers at Nongsa Digital Park include Singapore-headquartered BW Digital, DayOne and Princeton Digital Group. Gaw Capital Partners, another owner, said it was “aware of the distress and frustration expressed by local residents in Nongsa and surrounding Batam communities.”
Gaw Capital said its facilities use engineering and design measures alongside renewable energy, including “closed-loop” systems that reuse water and require less fresh supply.
Residents have also described the impact on household businesses. Sulastri, 38, said the water crisis had worsened over the past six months. “Many of us here run small stalls. We used to make ice cubes, but we can’t any more.”
The government has distributed water by truck, but Sulastri described it as “smelly” and “yellowish.”
Batam Mayor Amsakar said the decline in supply was “due to weather and climate factors.” Data-center capacity in Southeast Asia is projected to triple from 2025 levels by 2030.
