This year saw the first anti-data centre demonstration in Malaysia in Gelang Patah, Johor. Residents of residential areas near the construction site of the ZData Technologies data centre complained that the dust from the construction site and the noise were disturbing their daily lives. This issue has been resolved but Kota Iskandar Assemblyman Pandak Ahmad is now suggesting that the data centre should not be built near residential areas.
He admitted that the demonstration by the residents should be a lesson for the state government in the future. The opinions of the residents of Taman Nusantara Prima were not taken into account before the construction of the data centre in Gelang Patah began. As a result, the data centre's parameter fence was built right behind the houses of the residents of the park.
Apart from the dust issue, residents also complained that the construction caused flash floods, cracked houses believed to be due to the piling work and wild animals such as snakes and pigs entering the house areas.
After distributing the residents' grievances, ZData Technologies spent millions of ringgit in the form of free car wash services for residents, cleaning roads, installing water sprinklers to reduce dust and investing tens of millions more for a data centre cooling system that recycles water.
Johor wants to become the nation's AI Data Centre Hub with over 40 data centres already approved this year. The state government will no longer approve data centre projects that use high water supplies because it puts pressure on the state's water resources. In fact, the Prime Minister also said that the construction of non-AI data centres will no longer be approved in the next two years because they use high water and electricity supplies.
