The UK government has declared the country’s water shortage a “national emergency” and issued a set of recommendations aimed at cutting water use. Among the usual tips – fixing leaks, shortening showers, collecting rainwater – one unusual suggestion stood out: delete old emails and photos.

According to officials, data centres use significant amounts of water to cool their servers. Clearing out unused digital files, they argue, could reduce the strain on these facilities. The advice was reported by Tom’s Hardware.

However, the internet isn’t buying it. Social media users and tech experts point out that deleting emails or photos has little to no impact on water consumption. Most of a data centre’s water use comes from running CPUs and GPUs for active computing, not simply storing files.

In fact, as Tom’s Hardware notes, deleting archives could be counterproductive. Searching for, retrieving, and erasing files requires additional processing power – which also consumes energy and, indirectly, water. On top of that, UK citizens’ data may be stored in data centres abroad, making any local savings negligible.

Meanwhile, the drought is hitting hard: five regions of England are officially in drought, and six more face prolonged dry weather. It’s the driest January-to-July period since 1976, with water levels in rivers and reservoirs continuing to fall – and August forecasts offer no sign of rain.

The government’s water-saving tips include:

• Install a rainwater collection tank for garden use.
• Repair leaking toilets – they can waste 200–400 litres per day.
• Reuse kitchen water for plants.
• Skip lawn watering – yellow grass will recover naturally.
• Turn off the tap while brushing teeth or shaving.
• Take shorter showers.
• And yes… delete those old emails and photos.

Looks like the UK is ready to fight drought from the bathroom to the inbox – though the latter might just be wishful thinking.