[Malaysia] Nearly 6.5 billion liters of reclaimed water supplied annually: AWS joins forces with Air Selangor and two other parties to turn wastewater treatment plant effluent into a cooling water source for data centers.

Key Highlights: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is collaborating with three parties in Malaysia — Air Selangor, Indah Water Konsortium (IWK), and Central Water Reclaim — to build a first-of-its-kind reclaimed water facility. Once fully operational, it will supply nearly 65亿 liters of reclaimed water annually — equivalent to approximately 2600 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or the annual water consumption of about 21300 Malaysian households. This is AWS's largest contracted reclaimed water supply project in the Southeast Asia region, and will support data centers in the Kuala Lumpur area in achieving 100% reclaimed water cooling.

I. Sweeping All Three Singapore Water Awards

2026年9月25日, AWS Singapore's water resource management practices received recognition from Singapore's Public Utilities Board (PUB, Singapore's national water agency), taking home three PUB water awards in one fell swoop: Singapore Watermark Award, Water Efficiency Award, and Water Efficiency Award (Projects).

This is the first organization to sweep all three awards in a single year. AWS had previously received the Singapore Watermark Award and Water Efficiency Award in 2024 年. These three PUB recognitions represent the highest acknowledgment for organizations demonstrating outstanding performance in water efficiency, advocacy, and innovation capabilities.

It is worth noting the depth of AWS's collaboration with PUB: it is the Theme Sponsor of 2024 年 Singapore International Water Week (SIWW), the Founding Sponsor of 2026 年, and has long supported Singapore World Water Day and the SG Water Saver Programme.

II. Malaysia Project: How 65亿 Liters of Reclaimed Water Is Generated

In Malaysia, AWS is collaborating with three local partners to build a reclaimed water facility:

• Air Selangor — Selangor State Water Supply Agency
• Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) — Malaysia's national sewage treatment operator
• Central Water Reclaim — Reclaimed water specialist enterprise

This facility is positioned as first-of-their-kind, and once fully operational, will supply nearly 65亿 liters of reclaimed water annually. To make this figure more tangible, AWS provided two conversion metrics: equivalent to the capacity of approximately 2600 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or the annual water consumption of about 21300 Malaysian households.

The project serves AWS's data centers in the Kuala Lumpur area, with the goal of enabling these data centers to use 100% reclaimed water for cooling. This is also AWS's largest contracted reclaimed water supply project in the region, and aligns with the Malaysian government's Water Transformation Roadmap 2040 (2040).

From a policy perspective, this collaboration demonstrates how the public-private partnership (PPP) model can drive scalable deployment of sustainable water infrastructure — the effluent from sewage treatment plants is no longer merely a "waste management byproduct of discharge compliance," but an industrial water source that can be procured, priced, and integrated into industrial supply chains.

III. Why Data Centers Are Turning to Reclaimed Water

The water pressure on data centers is particularly pronounced in tropical Southeast Asia.

AWS data centers rely on free air cooling for most of the year, using water cooling only on the hottest days; globally, its data centers' water efficiency is more than 7 times the industry average. However, in Southeast Asia, higher ambient temperatures and humidity mean that the cooling process requires more water.

In Southeast Asia's AWS data centers, efficient open loop cooling and cooling towers are used. Open loop cooling works similarly to evaporative cooling: water absorbs heat from servers and releases it through evaporation, thereby reducing reliance on energy-intensive mechanical chillers; cooling towers accelerate this process by maximizing the contact area between water and air. By finding the optimal balance between "water" and "electricity," data centers are able to move large amounts of heat with lower total resource consumption.

Efficiency data also continues to improve: the average Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of AWS data centers in Singapore decreased from 1.68 liters/kWh in 2024 年 to 1.57 liters/kWh in 2025 年.

To further improve efficiency, AWS has also partnered with Singapore-based startup Hydroleap to deploy a chemical-free water circulation system at cooling towers. Instead of traditional heavy chemical dosing, the system removes pollutants from water through electrical current treatment, and can reduce cooling tower blowdown water volume by up to 70%.

IV. Regional Layout: From Singapore to Indonesia and Thailand

AWS's use of reclaimed water in Southeast Asia has formed a tiered layout:

• Singapore — has achieved **100% use of reclaimed water**. This benefits from PUB's systematic advancement of reclaimed water (NEWater, ultra-clean reclaimed water produced through microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet treatment) as a sustainable industrial water source. All Amazon data centers operate on NEWater
• Malaysia — has signed contracts to achieve **100% reclaimed water**, namely this 65亿 liters project
• Indonesia — AWS is **the first data center operator in West Java to use reclaimed water for cooling**, reducing dependence on freshwater sources
• Thailand — is advancing efforts to increase the proportion of reclaimed water use

Globally, AWS already has 26 facilities operating with 100% reclaimed water, more than any other cloud service provider, with another 130 facilities under contract.

V. Three Insights for Chinese Water Enterprises

First, the buyers of reclaimed water are changing. In the past, the main buyers of reclaimed water were municipal miscellaneous use, landscape replenishment, and a small number of industrial cooling users; now, hyperscale data centers have become a new, large-scale buyer with strong payment capacity. Such customers have significantly higher requirements for water quality stability and water supply continuity than traditional users.

Second, the business model is shifting from "subsidy-driven" to "contract-driven." The Malaysia project involves the data center party signing contracts to purchase reclaimed water, rather than relying on fiscal incentives. This means the cash flow model of reclaimed water projects can be closer to market-based infrastructure, which is a substantial positive for project financing.

Third, cross-sector collaboration is a prerequisite. The Malaysia project involves three parties: the water supply agency (Air Selangor), the sewage operator (IWK), and the reclaimed water specialist company (Central Water Reclaim). In essence, it connects the three systems of "water supply—drainage—reclamation," which originally belonged to different systems. This suggests to water enterprises that future competition is not only about processes and costs, but also about cross-system integration capability.

When the effluent of a sewage treatment plant can be written into a procurement contract by a data center, the term "reclaimed water" has truly completed its transformation from an environmental concept to an industrial commodity.

About TIANYI TECH

Hong Kong TIANYI Technology Limited (TIANYI LIMITED) focuses on industrial water treatment and water resource reuse. Centered on three core products—Industrial Wastewater Treatment AI Agent, Industrial Water Reuse Optimization System, and Industrial Water System Digital Twin—it provides enterprises with full-chain services from water quality diagnosis and process optimization to intelligent operations, helping customers improve water reuse rates and reduce operating costs.

Contact us: +852 66162262 | info@tianyitech.hk