Rethinking AI Infrastructure: Why green data centres must be chosen responsibly

The UK Environment Agency recently issued a warning: the rapid growth of artificial intelligence is making water scarcity harder to predict . The rise in digital processing power, particularly from data centers supporting AI models, is putting unpredictable strain on public water supplies. In the UK, where many data centers rely on municipal water for cooling, this is happening without proper oversight or measurement.

This is not just a British concern, it’s a global signal that the infrastructure powering our digital future is being built without enough transparency or sustainability in mind. If left unchecked, digital expansion risks accelerating the very environmental crises it’s supposed to help solve.

At Afrik, we do not build or operate data centers. Instead, we focus on the democratic governance of infrastructure. Our platform empowers communities to vote on which projects – such as renewable energy, climate-adaptive agriculture or sustainable digital infrastructure – should receive funding. Using blockchain technology and smart contracts, we provide tools for transparent, community-led investment that is geo-weighted and locally accountable.

AI models and digital tools can be used to fight climate change – but only if the infrastructure supporting them is equally responsible. When data centers are built without regard for energy sources or water use, their environmental toll can be severe. Yet too often, local communities have little to no say in where or how these centers are built.

Afrik was created to address this imbalance. Through our voting platform, communities and stakeholders can make informed decisions about proposed infrastructure projects, ensuring that digital development aligns with local environmental priorities. In regions considering green data centers or energy-intensive digital processing hubs, we see our role as a facilitator of accountable funding and public oversight, not an infrastructure operator.

This model allows communities to prioritize low-carbon energy sources, monitor environmental metrics and ensure any AI or blockchain applications are locally beneficial and not extractive.

Our platform supports smart contracts – programmable agreements that unlock funding only when agreed-upon milestones or ethical criteria are met. For example, a community could vote to fund a renewable energy microgrid, contingent on using local labor or meeting biodiversity standards. Or a green data center could be funded if it meets specific energy or water efficiency benchmarks.

We call this geo-weighted governance, it’s a model in which those most affected by development decisions have the greatest say and is a sharp contrast to top-down infrastructure planning that often leaves out the people it impacts most.

One of the clearest use cases for community-governed digital infrastructure is agriculture. AI can help smallholder farmers adapt to climate shifts, optimize planting cycles and access early warnings for droughts or pests. 

Afrik’s platform enables funding for farmer-focused digital tools, many of which use AI to support productivity and sustainability. 

We believe food sovereignty requires data sovereignty. Communities must be at the center of decisions about how AI is used on their land, and whether digital infrastructure enhances or erodes their livelihoods.

Every decision about digital infrastructure is also a climate decision. The placement of a data center, the source of its electricity, the amount of water it consumes, all have long-term environmental consequences.

That’s why we advocate for a shift in mindset: digital infrastructure should be viewed as climate infrastructure. Through blockchain-based voting and smart contract enforcement, communities can build mechanisms that align digital expansion with sustainability goals. This includes public visibility into environmental impacts, inclusive governance frameworks and long-term accountability for outcomes.

At Afrik, we also address financial exclusion through the creation of digital assets that reflect local value, not global speculation. In many regions, weak or volatile currencies make it difficult for communities to fund essential infrastructure. Our approach ties digital tokens to real-world, productive activity, thus enabling transparent, direct participation in solar farms or digital infrastructure.

We believe poverty is not just a lack of capital, but a lack of control over capital flows. By decentralizing funding decisions and linking value to impact, we help restore that control to local communities.

Our goal is not to impose technology, but to steward it. That means putting in place ethical guardrails, transparent governance mechanisms, and metrics that track both social and environmental performance. From rural Africa to urban Europe, the same principle holds: people must have agency over the systems that shape their lives.

The warning from the UK Environment Agency is a wake-up call. AI and data centers are not neutral tools - they are embedded in systems that affect water, energy, climate and equity. We cannot afford to leave those systems unexamined or unaccountable.

Afrik is helping to build the digital governance tools we’ll need for a more inclusive, sustainable future. These tools allow communities to say yes to the right projects, and no to the wrong ones. But this cannot be done single handedly. Governments, businesses, technologists and civil society must work together to ensure the next wave of infrastructure serves people and the planet alike.

It’s time to slow down, ask the right questions and make decisions in public. Because digital infrastructure isn’t just shaping our future, it’s shaping our climate, our economies and our democracies.