The island where locals say data centres are taking their water

"Water! Water!" the crowd shouted as it stormed a compound with data centres, armed with empty plastic bottles and jerry cans.

There were about 300 of them, all residents on the Indonesian island of Batam, and they were furious that the taps at home had run dry, while the data centres in the new Nongsa Digital Park seemed to have enough water to protect their machines from overheating.

"Not a single drop has come through our taps for the last three months... Our water supply had been reliable until the data centres came," Dewi Susanti, one of the protesters, told the BBC.

People in her village, Bakau Serip, were now depending on tanker trucks that dispensed "dirty, cloudy and smelly" water, she said.

Batam's water utility told the BBC it was working to improve supply, but did not comment on whether the disruption was linked to demand from the data centres.

But BP Batam, the agency overseeing trade and industry, blamed it on a prolonged dry spell and denied allegations from locals that water meant for homes was being channelled to data centres.

This is not the first such protest in Batam, whose shrinking reservoirs find themselves under more pressure as the island tries to transform itself into a digital hub.

Following protests in August and September, authorities told the firms opening data centres in Batam that they must build their own desalination plants instead of relying on reservoirs for freshwater.