New research highlights growing consumer awareness of AI’s hidden water footprint & rising expectations for business action. Mumbai, Maharashtra, India (NewsVoir) Ecolab, a global sustainability leader in water solutions and services, announced the India findings from its third annual Ecolab Watermark™ Study, which explores how people perceive water challenges & the role of business in solving them. This year’s research connects water stewardship to one of the region’s fastest-growing industries, artificial intelligence (AI), revealing that while India leads global optimism on the promise of AI, awareness of its hidden water impact remains limited.
According to the Ecolab Watermark Study, awareness of AI’s resource demands is high in India, with 70% of consumers recognising its water footprint and 86% associating AI with high energy use. As AI-driven infrastructure, such as data centres and advanced manufacturing, expands across the country, expectations on business are rising in parallel. More than two-thirds of respondents in India believe water conservation and reuse are essential to long-term business growth. Nearly 64% of Indian consumers believe that water used to power AI is diverting resources and contributing to water scarcity for people. The findings underscore the need for the industry to embed water reuse, recycling and AI-enabled water management into the core of India’s growth strategy.
India’s expanding digital economy, from data centres to electronics manufacturing, represents both a growth engine and a stress test for water infrastructure. With industrial and energy demand set to surge, Ecolab’s findings underscore the need for cross-sector collaboration to close the water reuse gap, which globally remains below 20% and under 10% in the microelectronics sector.
“AI can make India’s water systems intelligent. When every litre is measured, analysed, and reused, water stops being a constraint and becomes a competitive advantage. Water security isn’t just an environmental goal, it’s an economic imperative for India’s next phase of growth,” said Manish Khandelwal, Managing Director, Ecolab India.
Ecolab is already partnering with industries across India to deploy AI-driven water management systems that reduce freshwater withdrawal, enable near zero liquid discharge operations, and improve cooling tower efficiency. These technologies can help facilities achieve up to 40% lower water use per unit of output while maintaining reliability in water-stressed regions.
