Earlier this week, we reported on the incident of protests by residents of Gelang Patah in Johor regarding the development of Zdata Technologies' data center, which is said to have caused air pollution through dust flying in the air recently.
Zdata Technologies also issued a statement regarding the incident, and said that the pollution issue was not actually caused by the development phase of their data center.
Through a press release issued, the data center location has just completed the first phase of the data center development, which consists of four phases. The first phase of clearing the area was completed on February 4, 2026 and the second phase involving the development of the data center involves the installation and compaction of pre-mixed layers and internal installation does not cause dust or pollution to the surrounding area.
They also said that there are several other developments underway in the same area, and that may also be the cause of the dusty air incident that is plaguing the Gelang Patah area.
The first and second phases of the data center development involve 18 acres of land purchased from Tropicana Firstwide, while the third and fourth phases will commence when Zdata receives another 20 acres of land.
Regarding concerns about excessive water consumption by the data center, Zdata also said that their server machines will be cooled using alternative water sources such as recycled water that will be produced by a water processing center that will be built specifically for the process.
Zdata was also awarded the Green Data Center Recycled Water Certification by Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation last year for the construction of a data center that meets Malaysia's green power and water consumption standards.
