Letter

In response to The next Basin Plan is a disaster in the making

A river’s right to exist

We have the startling repeated failure of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, with all levels of government prevaricating, unable to make a decision on a plan of action for over 14 years, strangling ecosystems along the length of this once mighty life giving river. Refocusing the lens on AI data centres and their obscenely thirsty water requirements of 40 million litres per centre per day, where will the water come from?

In western Sydney, where summer temperatures already regularly reach 40 degrees in summer, and where data centres are being built like a rash, will the mighty Nepean River become the new victim? When countries around the world are now legislating a rivers’ rights to exist, will we allow short sighted governments and callous tech bros to suck the life blood of our country on our watch?

AI was foisted on us with the promise of medical and environmental breakthroughs. All we have seen is middle class addiction to a technology we neither asked for or needed five minutes ago. What to do in this age of seeming hopelessness? Know where your consumer dollar goes: boycott, pressure, protest, vote.

— Alyssa Aleksanian from Hazelbrook