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The National Drought Group (NDG), an [environmental / environment] organization in the UK, has warned that data centres are putting a [stain / strain] on the country's water supplies. This is also a [concertina / concern] in many other countries. The group did not indicate to what [degree / degrees] these facilities are contributing to [drought / draught] conditions in many parts of the UK. It is estimated [that / what] the centres use up to 10 billion litres of water per year to [cool / cooling] their giant facilities. One water company reported that [the / a] large data centre can use as much water as 50,000 households. [Spite of / Despite] concerns from environmentalists, the UK is pushing ahead to build many more data centres. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said they were essential [for / by] economic growth.

The NDG has [purged / urged] Britons to take [measures / measurements] to cut back on their water consumption. One such measure is to [thrash / trash] unwanted emails and large images. The group claims this will [lesser / lessen] the demand [to / for] water. A government website suggested deleting old emails and pictures "[as / has] as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems". NDG chairperson Helen Wakeham said a simple everyday action such as tidying [down / up] one's inbox and spam and trash folders will "really help the [corrective / collective] effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health [to / of] our rivers and wildlife". However, it is likely that the water saved from people deleting files stored in the cloud is merely [the / a] drop in the ocean.