i mean, a regulation could be made up that requires data center operators to bring their own supplies, i.e. make up additional plumbing for the village. and pipe the water from somewhere where it’s plentiful. a big river or sth.

Like picking up flour and trying to drop it back in the bag. Some ends up on your counter.

water does evaporates, goes into the atmosphere and comes down again as rain somewhere else. basically no water leaves the planet because the gravitational field is strong enough to retain practically all of it, even over billions of years.

typically, due to trade winds, winds generally blow towards the west in mid-latitudes. so if water evaporates in new york, it probably rains down over the midwest. if it evaporates over the midwest, it comes down in the great desert west of the midwest. in these cases, water isn’t lost as it falls down again over soil.

Earth’s wind systems

convection means you need fans, which need energy. have you compared the energy requirements of fans compared to simple water pumps? water pumps are a whole lot more energy efficient. so it’s basically an energy / water trade-off

the site has surprisingly no charts despite its name “barchart.com”, unfortunately

it would be good to have estimates for various sectors to check their electricity / water consumption and compare it towards each other, i.e. how much energy does airplanes need? how much water do nuclear reactors need? how much does agriculture need? etc