15 sources behind this chapter. Each one carries a note on what it is doing in the argument.
Reporting on testimony in support of Minnesota SF 3852 and the proposed large-scale water-permit process for data centres.
Minnesota Women’s Press. ‘Minnesotans Testify About the Need for a Large-Scale Water Permit Process.’ 31 March 2026.
Contemporary report on the City’s Newlands Spring management measures: enforcement personnel managing access and each person requested to fill containers of no more than 25 litres at a time.
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Infrastructure News. ‘Cape residents start the scramble for water.’ 6 February 2018. Reporting City of Cape Town management measures at Newlands Spring.
The recording of the committee hearing where Minnesota’s proposed large-scale water-permit process, and Mo Feshami’s evidence, were considered in public.
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Minnesota Senate. Environment, Climate, and Legacy Committee hearing. 26 March 2026. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPPywkB0CUM.
A plain-language account of the research on AI’s water footprint, useful for understanding why model training and everyday use draw water in places the user may never see.
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Danelski, David. 'AI programs consume large volumes of scarce water.' UC Riverside News, 28 April 2023.
The coffee comparison in the water chapter comes from here: roughly 140 litres of water across the supply chain for a small cup.
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Chapagain, A.K. and Hoekstra, A.Y. The Water Needed to Have the Dutch Drink Coffee. UNESCO-IHE / Water Footprint Network, 2003. (Roughly 140 litres per 125 ml cup.)
Used to show the electricity curve beneath AI growth: global data-centre demand projected to rise towards 945 terawatt-hours by 2030, with much of it concentrated in particular places.
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International Energy Agency. Energy and AI: Energy demand from AI. IEA, 10 April 2025. (Data-centre electricity roughly doubling to about 945 TWh by 2030; geographic concentration.)
The official record behind the Cape Town Day Zero memory, including the 50-litre daily target that made water use suddenly measurable in buckets, showers and toilet flushes.
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City of Cape Town. Day Zero Disaster Plan FAQs. 2018. https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Centre%20Assets/Day%20Zero%20Disaster%20Plan%20FAQs.pdf.
Krista Mahr’s report on how Cape Town pulled back from Day Zero, including the household restrictions and public campaign that made an invisible resource suddenly impossible to ignore.
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Mahr, Krista. 'How Cape Town Was Saved from Running Out of Water.' The Guardian, 4 May 2018.
Mo Feshami’s testimony supplies the Farmington figures at the centre of the water chapter, including the proposed daily allocation and his comparison with the city’s existing use.
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Feshami, Mo. Written testimony in support of Minnesota SF 3852, Senate Committee on Environment, Climate, and Legacy, 26 March 2026. https://assets.senate.mn/committees/2025-2026/3130_Committee_on_Environment_Climate_and_Legacy/Mo-Feshami_SF-3852.pdf (Professional background; the 2.93 million gallons-per-day contract under City of Farmington Resolution 2024-111, signed 2 December 2024; the comparison to average daily use; the closing question.)
Used for the scale of the proposed Farmington data centre—its footprint, power demand and the local water use residents were comparing it against.
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Webber, Melissa. 'Farmington residents push back against massive data center projected to double city's water use.' CBS News Minnesota, 11 February 2026. (The 2.5 million square foot hyperscale project; the 708 MW figure; Farmington's roughly 2.14 million gallons-per-day current use.)
This is the source behind the often-mangled ‘bottle of water’ comparison. The actual estimate varies sharply by place, weather and model use, which is why the book treats it as a range rather than a slogan.
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Li, Pengfei; Yang, Jianyi; Islam, Mohammad A.; and Ren, Shaolei. ‘Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models.’ arXiv:2304.03271, 2023; v5 revised 26 March 2025.