SHAH ALAM, Nov 5 — The federal government has revealed new figures indicating that water usage by Malaysia’s rapidly expanding data centre sectors remains well managed, especially in the Klang Valley and Johor, said Deputy Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong.
“Data from the Selangor water operator, which also supplies to the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, and Johor show that water consumption by data centres is well controlled.
“On average, water usage for data centre operations within Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya stands at about 0.47 million litres daily (MLD), or 0.012 per cent of total regional domestic and non-domestic consumption, which amounts to 3,879MLD,” he said during a Parliament’s question-and-answer session today.
Liew said in Johor, water usage by data centres is around 9.07MLD, representing 0.6 per cent of total consumption of 1,511MLD.
He also said data centres play a crucial role in Malaysia’s digital transformation, and serve as main infrastructure in the development of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI).
“The government’s direction is to ensure investments in data centres prioritise the whole-of-value chain investment.
“This includes positioning data centres as off-takers of renewable energy, building a local supply chain for data centre equipment, creating high-value jobs for Malaysians, and expanding the use of AI within our economy,” he said.
He added that Data Centre Task Force (DCTF), co-chaired by the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry and Digital Ministry, along with the Energy Commission (ST), National AI Commission, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), and other agencies, is developing a roadmap for the industry.
Meanwhile, Liew said that between 2021 and June 2025, 143 data centre investment projects were approved, with 25 projects granted incentives under the Digital Ecosystem Acceleration scheme involving RM144.4 billion in investments and the creation of 1,429 jobs.
In response to a question on data sovereignty and environmental sustainability, he said Malaysia’s policies ensure strict standards on power and water usage efficiency.
“For data stored in data centres, there are no issues concerning national data sovereignty or data leakage,” he said.
On power usage, Liew said actual electricity consumption by data centres nationwide as of June 2025 stood at 603MW, or 47 per cent of the declared maximum demand of 1,276MW.
“To maintain overall system stability, our target is to reach 85 per cent of maximum declared demand.
“The Energy Commission has also identified speculative applications and adjusted capacity projections to reduce the risk of unused assets and unnecessary costs being passed on to other users,” Liew said.
