Naivasha, Kenya – For communities dwelling round Naivasha, water isn’t an summary useful resource. It sustains households, livestock, farms and colleges.
That actuality has taken on new significance after plans for a serious Microsoft-G42 knowledge centre in Olkaria, close to Lake Naivasha, stalled in Could 2026 over issues about accessible energy capability.
Microsoft and United Arab Emirates-based synthetic intelligence firm G42 introduced the mission in 2024 as a part of a $1bn digital funding bundle for Kenya. The proposed facility was to run on geothermal power and ultimately scale to as a lot as 1 gigawatt of capability.
The uncertainty has additionally prompted questions on what one other main industrial consumer may imply for water in a area the place residents already report shortages.
Microsoft and G42 stated the proposed knowledge centre campus would run fully on renewable geothermal power and incorporate water conservation know-how. The businesses didn’t disclose a project-specific water consumption determine of their 2024 announcement.
Kenya Electrical energy Producing Firm (KenGen) communications director Frank David Ochieng advised Al Jazeera that the info centre stays on the design stage and that he couldn’t remark additional till the mission is able to proceed.
For residents like Musa Olorkedienye, who spoke to Al Jazeera, water shortage is already a day by day concern. He says communities round Olkaria have seen adjustments in entry to water, together with the lack of dependable piped provides that residents beforehand acquired from KenGen.
“Presently, we’re counting on water distributors to get water, our animals are strolling for kilometres, and we concern issues may worsen as demand for water rises,” Olorkedienye says.
Pastoralist Isaac Leshishi, who additionally spoke to Al Jazeera, says more and more harsh climate is including to the strain.
Why Olkaria?
The selection of Olkaria was carefully tied to power. The realm is house to Kenya’s main geothermal operations, making it a sexy location for a power-intensive facility.
KenGen operates the Olkaria geothermal advanced, whereas Microsoft and G42 deliberate to energy the proposed knowledge centre fully with geothermal power.
A lake below strain
Naivasha is a freshwater lake in Kenya’s Rift Valley whose catchment helps agriculture, tourism, livestock and home water use. Its basin additionally hosts geothermal improvement and different financial exercise.
Grace Kimani, a patrol chief with Lake Naivasha and Oloiden, advised Al Jazeera that the reservoir is below rising strain from inhabitants progress, agriculture, water abstraction, local weather variability, air pollution and ecosystem degradation.
“The deliberate Microsoft-G42 knowledge centre in Olkaria may convey jobs and funding, however its water demand raises issues about including strain to already competing wants, significantly throughout dry durations,” she stated.
Kimani stated there’s restricted public details about the mission’s anticipated water demand, supply and cooling know-how. She stated transparency and an evaluation of its cumulative affect on water sources could be necessary.
She additionally known as for water-efficient or water-free cooling, water recycling and using handled wastewater, in addition to sustainable abstraction limits and group involvement in monitoring.
![Kamere landing beach has been flooded by rising water levels in Lake Naivasha, Kenya [Hafsa Abdiwahab Sheikh/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG-20260819-WA00141-1787404768.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
Silas Wanjala of the Lake Naivasha Riparian Affiliation, who spoke to Al Jazeera, stated the area is closely depending on groundwater and that declining water flows are including to the strain.
“These industries, particularly EcoCloud, which cope with knowledge, will devour plenty of water at a time when rivers are drying, and demand for water is on the rise,” Wanjala stated.
Olkaria EcoCloud Information Centre is a neighborhood companion within the G42-led improvement. In 2024, the Kenya Information Company reported that G42, Microsoft and EcoCloud signed a letter of intent for the broader data-centre initiative, with EcoCloud described as a neighborhood companion that had beforehand signed a memorandum of understanding with G42.
Wanjala factors to previous fluctuations in Lake Naivasha as a warning.
“This lake in 2010 practically dried up resulting from over-abstraction, and this might be repeated resulting from excessive demand for water by these buyers in Olkaria,” he says.
His concern comes in opposition to a wider backdrop of water shortage in Kenya. The Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) of the United Nations says Kenya has about 527 cubic metres (527,000 litres) of freshwater accessible per particular person, under the 1,000-cubic-metre threshold for water shortage, and estimates availability may fall to about 475 cubic metres per particular person by 2030.
The figures don’t present what impact the proposed knowledge centre would have on Lake Naivasha. They supply context, nevertheless, for why the prospect of one other main water consumer is drawing scrutiny in a area the place demand is already excessive.
How a lot water would it not use?
The quantity of water the proposed Microsoft-G42 facility itself would require stays unclear.
The mission announcement gives no projected consumption determine.
Current industrial use affords some context.
A KenGen environmental and social affect evaluation data that 195,165 cubic metres of water had been abstracted from Lake Naivasha in July 2023 for home and business makes use of at Olkaria and for operations and home use at Eburru.
Of that whole, 153,918 cubic metres had been used for business operations at Olkaria. The evaluation data the abstraction as inside Water Assets Authority (WRA) permitted ranges.
These figures relate to current KenGen operations, not the proposed knowledge centre.
For farmer Eskimos Kobia, who spoke to Al Jazeera, the potential competitors extends past households and livestock. He says farmers, pastoralists, colleges and buyers will all face larger strain as demand will increase.
Kimani stated local weather variability has additionally led to fluctuations in lake ranges, with durations of flooding adopted by extended dry situations.
“Water high quality is affected by agricultural run-off, untreated wastewater in some areas and invasive species,” she says.
Funding versus native issues
Not everybody in Naivasha opposes the funding.
Absolom Mukhuusi of the Naivasha Skilled Affiliation, who spoke to Al Jazeera, says the know-how sector may convey jobs, infrastructure and new companies to the realm. However he says financial advantages mustn’t come on the expense of native communities.
“Whilst we welcome the buyers, our largest concern is what occurs to our water our bodies and communities as water is diverted to Olkaria for the heavy customers,” he says.
Might know-how assist?
Geologist Kenyatta Otieno, who spoke to Al Jazeera, sees one other potential profit.
He recollects the strain massive flower farms as soon as positioned on the lake’s ecosystem, saying many have since left or scaled again their operations.
Otieno says the proposed centre would have included a useful resource centre to observe lake ranges and climate patterns. Such monitoring, he says, may assist establish the very best water degree over time and information riparian land zoning.
“The centre being constructed with water conservation in thoughts could be futuristic as Naivasha is mostly a water-scarce space. It could be a mannequin for future improvement,” Otieno stated.
Kenya already has regulators chargeable for managing competing calls for. The WRA regulates water abstraction and points water-use permits, whereas the Nationwide Surroundings Administration Authority (NEMA) oversees environmental affect assessments below the nation’s environmental regulatory framework.
Makes an attempt by Al Jazeera to acquire feedback from WRA and NEMA officers had been unsuccessful. Efforts to succeed in Microsoft-G42 officers and Kenyan authorities officers for touch upon the mission’s standing and water necessities had been additionally unsuccessful.
For now, the mission’s eventual scale, design and water necessities stay unclear, in accordance with KenGen.
“We at the moment are competing with the multibillion [-dollar] firms for water, and we concern that we will be the losers in the long term,” Leshishi stated.
