About 300 residents of Bakau Serip village on Indonesia’s Batam island gathered outside a data‑centre compound, waving empty plastic bottles and jerry cans to demand water for their homes.

Protesters said household taps have been dry for three months, a situation they link to the arrival of data centres in the newly built Nongsa Digital Park.

Local resident Dewi Susanti told the BBC that the community now depends on tanker trucks delivering water described as “dirty, cloudy and smelly.”

Batam’s water utility said it is working to improve supply but did not comment on any link between the shortage and data‑centre demand, while BP Batam attributed the problem to a prolonged dry spell and denied that water meant for homes was being diverted to the facilities.

Following earlier protests in August and September, authorities instructed data‑centre developers to build their own desalination plants rather than rely on the island’s reservoirs.

Batam has approved ten data‑centre projects, six of which are slated for Nongsa Digital Park; two are already operating, a third is under construction, and at least six more are under review.

Simulations by the local environmental group Akar Bhumi Indonesia indicate that the Nongsa reservoir, which supplies water to Bakau Serip, could dry up within a month if rainfall does not return.

The island’s water shortages this year are exacerbated by a historic “super” El Niño, according to local observations.