Naivasha, Kenya – For communities residing round Naivasha, water isn’t an summary useful resource. It sustains households, livestock, farms and faculties.
That actuality has taken on new significance after plans for a significant Microsoft-G42 knowledge centre in Olkaria, close to Lake Naivasha, stalled in Might 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 package deal for Kenya. The proposed facility was to run on geothermal power and finally 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 solely 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 informed 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 every day concern. He says communities round Olkaria have seen modifications in entry to water, together with the lack of dependable piped provides that residents beforehand acquired from KenGen.
“At present, we’re counting on water distributors to get water, our animals are strolling for kilometres, and we worry 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 intently tied to power. The realm is residence to Kenya’s main geothermal operations, making it a pretty location for a power-intensive facility.
KenGen operates the Olkaria geothermal complicated, whereas Microsoft and G42 deliberate to energy the proposed knowledge centre solely with geothermal power.
A lake beneath 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, informed Al Jazeera that the reservoir is beneath rising strain from inhabitants development, 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, notably throughout dry intervals,” she stated.
Kimani stated there may be restricted public details about the mission’s anticipated water demand, supply and cooling know-how. She stated transparency and an evaluation of its cumulative influence on water assets can be vital.
She additionally referred to 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 a whole lot of water at a time when rivers are drying, and demand for water is on the rise,” Wanjala stated.
Olkaria EcoCloud Information Centre is an area associate 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 an area associate 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 almost dried up attributable to over-abstraction, and this could possibly be repeated attributable to excessive demand for water by these buyers in Olkaria,” he says.
His concern comes towards 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, nonetheless, 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.
Present industrial use presents some context.
A KenGen environmental and social influence evaluation information that 195,165 cubic metres of water have been abstracted from Lake Naivasha in July 2023 for home and industrial makes use of at Olkaria and for operations and home use at Eburru.
Of that complete, 153,918 cubic metres have been used for industrial operations at Olkaria. The evaluation information the abstraction as inside Water Sources 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, faculties and buyers will all face higher strain as demand will increase.
Kimani stated local weather variability has additionally led to fluctuations in lake ranges, with intervals of flooding adopted by extended dry circumstances.
“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 world. However he says financial advantages shouldn’t come on the expense of native communities.
“At the same time as we welcome the buyers, our largest worry 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 remembers 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 watch lake ranges and climate patterns. Such monitoring, he says, may assist determine the best water degree over time and information riparian land zoning.
“The centre being constructed with water conservation in thoughts can be futuristic as Naivasha is mostly a water-scarce space. It could be a mannequin for future improvement,” Otieno stated.
Kenya already has regulators accountable for managing competing calls for. The WRA regulates water abstraction and points water-use permits, whereas the Nationwide Setting Administration Authority (NEMA) oversees environmental influence assessments beneath the nation’s environmental regulatory framework.
Makes an attempt by Al Jazeera to acquire feedback from WRA and NEMA officers have been unsuccessful. Efforts to succeed in Microsoft-G42 officers and Kenyan authorities officers for touch upon the mission’s standing and water necessities have been additionally unsuccessful.
For now, the mission’s eventual scale, design and water necessities stay unclear, in keeping with KenGen.
“We at the moment are competing with the multibillion [-dollar] firms for water, and we worry that we will be the losers in the long term,” Leshishi stated.
