The British government recently issued an unusual request to its citizens: delete old emails and photos in order to save water.

“Simple decisions you make every day, such as turning off the tap or deleting old emails, help reduce demand for water,” stated the official announcement from the country’s National Drought Council, a government body.

Britain is suffering from drought across several regions, while other areas are experiencing significant water shortages, though not yet officially declared as drought zones.

The government’s guidance offers citizens concerned about the situation a range of steps to conserve water, including installing a home rainwater collection system for garden use, fixing leaking toilets, shortening shower times, and, notably, reducing digital hoarding—framed as a compelling reason to strive for Inbox Zero.

What lies behind this?

According to data collected by Oxford University, a small server farm can consume more than twenty-five million liters of water annually for cooling purposes, provided it relies on relatively outdated cooling methods that use water evaporation rather than closed-loop systems.

However, many questioned the rationale of the recommendation and its rather negligible effect on national water consumption, especially given that earlier this year the government unveiled a plan to allocate substantial resources toward expanding the use of artificial intelligence.

In other words, a development that will require significantly more water.

This creates a situation in which the British government is asking citizens to dig through their Gmail accounts in search of unnecessary emails or photos, while at the same time preparing to offset all such savings through its plan to deepen investment in AI.