Amazon Web Services (AWS) today confirmed it is currently replenishing more water in the community than it uses across its direct data centre operations in Aragón, and it also announced a new water recovery project in partnership with Canal Imperial de Aragón.
AWS made these announcements during the second edition of TECH4WATER, an event held at Espacio Aura in Zaragoza that brought together experts, institutions, and irrigation community associations to reflect on water as a driver of progress in Aragón.
As of today, AWS's projects are already giving back more than 1 billion litres of water a year to the community with two of its water projects in Aragón, focused on smarter crop watering and the reuse of leftover irrigation water through a natural solution. As a result, the company is already putting back more water than they use in their data centres in Aragón. In practical terms, for every 1 litre AWS needs to run its data centres in Aragón, around 15 litres are returned to the local water system through these projects.
"I am very proud to say that in Aragón we are already returning more water than we use in our local data centres. Behind this milestone is an extraordinary team that works and innovates every day to make our data sites more efficient," says Paul Meaney, Director of Data Centre Operations for AWS in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). "Our commitment does not stop within our facilities. The water projects we support in Aragón are helping farmers, municipalities and communities save water across the region," Meaney concludes.
Through several local water projects, AWS is investing in making the entire region and its communities better prepared to handle water challenges—upgrading aging water systems, improving how water is delivered to homes and farms, and helping the area better cope with the effects of climate change.
A new project: over 10 billion liters of water of benefit a year
Working alongside Comunidad General de Usuarios del Canal Imperial de Aragón, and with technical support from local tech partner Agrow Analytics, this new water project aims to replace 25 kilometres of open ground irrigation ditches with enclosed pipes — cutting down on water lost to evaporation and leaks. The project will also place sensors in the ground to measure soil moisture, use satellite images to understand exactly how much water crops need, build a digital twin (virtual replica) of the entire water system so managers can monitor everything in real time from a screen, and develop smart technology that predicts the best times and amounts to water.
With a total investment of €3.73 million for this specific initiative, the goal is to save more than 10 billion litres of water every year once the project is fully completed by 2030. However, the project is already underway, and as it progresses, water-related benefits for the local community —amounting to several billion litres annually— are anticipated from the initial implementation phases.
On top of that, the project will offer hands-on training workshops to 21 local farming groups — reaching roughly 10,000 farmers who look after 24,000 hectares, which is 89% of all the land watered by this canal.
"The Canal Imperial de Aragón and its network of irrigation channels are historic infrastructures that have served as the agricultural engine of the Ebro corridor for over two centuries. However, today's water challenges require 21st-century solutions. The collaboration with AWS will help us upgrade a significant portion of our irrigation infrastructure through improvements to our channels, while also incorporating sensors and artificial intelligence into water management, ensuring that every cubic metre is used as efficiently as possible. Furthermore, this project represents a significant environmental improvement, contributing to the conservation of local biodiversity and the protection of the ecosystems associated with the River Ebro. It is a project made by and for the Irrigation Syndicates of the Canal Imperial de Aragón," highlights Javier Berdejo, President of the Comunidad General de Usuarios del Canal Imperial de Aragón.
Five projects, one vision: more water for Aragón
AWS today shared an update on the status of their previous five water projects in Aragón, which are at various stages of execution:
· Smart irrigation in the Ebro Basin. In farming, the precision irrigation programme — developed together with Agrow Analytics and local farmers in the Ebro Basin — has brought modern watering technology to more than 570 hectares of crops, including olive trees, almond trees, maize, and wheat. The project also trained dozens of local residents through hands-on workshops and is now saving over 244 million litres of water every year — that's 22% more than originally expected. Beyond water savings, the project has also helped protect 29 at-risk animal and plant species listed on an international conservation watchlist.
· Flood resilience in Zaragoza. In the city of Zaragoza, the collaboration with the City Council following the extraordinary rainfall of July 2023 is progressing with an ambitious flood resilience programme. The first neighbourhood infrastructure protections are now operational, and the project continues to develop five water storage and flow-control structures in areas such as Parque Venecia, Barranco de la Muerte, and Ronda Hispanidad. These are backed up by water-level sensors, early warning alerts, and a connected data system that ties it all together. Once everything is in place, the system will be able to hold back and store nearly 300 million litres of rainwater during a single storm — helping protect homes and streets from future flooding.
· Restoration of the historic San Julián de Banzo pipeline. In Huesca, work has already started to restore nearly 5.4 kilometres of the historic San Julián de Banzo water pipeline, a system dating back to the 1800s that carries water from the Fuenmayor spring to storage tanks in Loporzano. The initial groundwork is under way, funded by AWS in partnership with Huesca City Council. Once the old pipes are replaced and the system is up and running again, it is expected to save over 473 million litres of water every year — water that is currently being lost to leaks and blockages in the aging pipes.
· Irrigation water reuse in Pina de Ebro. In the town of Pina de Ebro, a two-kilometre pipe has been installed to capture leftover irrigation water and redirect it to a 70-hectare municipal poplar forest, instead of letting it flow away unused. This system — set up by Mediodes together with the local Pina de Ebro Irrigation Community — is already delivering proven savings of over 770 million litres of water per year. It also provides a double benefit: the poplar forest acts as a natural filter, absorbing excess nutrients from the water before it reaches the Ebro River, which means cleaner water downstream and less water needing to be drawn from the river in the first place.
· Smart leak detection in Villanueva de Gállego. AWS teamed up with Villanueva de Gállego Town Council and FidoTech — a company that specialises in finding hidden water leaks using internet-connected technology and smart software — to track down and fix water losses in the town's pipe network. By placing small listening devices along 45 kilometres of pipes and water meters, the team pinpointed 20 leaks, allowing the town to prioritise and fix the most urgent ones first. The result: 33 million litres of water saved every year during the project, water that had previously been seeping away underground, unnoticed.
Across all the water projects AWS is supporting in the Aragonese community, the company has increased its investment to more than 21 million euros in total, expecting a community water benefit of more than 2 billion litres per year by the end of 2026, far exceeding the direct water use of its data centres in the region.
Globally, Amazon has announced more than 60 water replenishment projects, expected to return more than 30 billion litres of water to communities and watersheds annually. Beyond water stewardship, Amazon is Europe's largest corporate purchaser of carbon-free energy, with more than 260 projects reaching more than 10 gigawatts capacity across the region. These efforts are part of The Climate Pledge, Amazon's goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2040.
