AWS, Amazon's cloud services platform, has announced that it will support three water projects in the community of Aragon, where the AWS Europe region is located.

The three new projects will receive a combined investment of 17.2 million euros and join two others that were launched in 2023. One project is for detecting water leaks in Villanueva de Gállego (Zaragoza), led by the company Fido Tech, which uses cloud-based technology. The other is for supplying clean water to the community of Pina de Ebro (also in Zaragoza). AWS will contribute its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in order to help achieve the goals of these projects.

Water availability and quality
Through these projects, Amazon is supporting water management in the communities that host its data centres, with the aim of improving water availability and quality. The projects in which it is involved range from restoring water resources to implementing smart technology and providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene services in water-stressed areas. The company has set a milestone for 2030 to return more water to communities and the environment than its data centres use.

The first of the new projects is to reduce the risk of flooding in an area of Zaragoza where 700,000 people live. In collaboration with Zaragoza City Council, this innovative scheme will create a smart alert system based on the AWS cloud. Real-time data collection, advanced sensor networks and a suite of IoT services and AI-driven analytics will transform response capability with predictive assessment and automated early warning resources to coordinate response efforts. As a complement to this, the City Council will build infrastructure that retains water in the event of flood risk, before subsequently treating it and returning it to its natural course.

Irrigation efficiency
The second project aims to improve irrigation efficiency in the Ebro basin. The company Agrow is developing a cloud and AI-based agricultural solution that uses AWS technologies to provide farmers with data-driven insights to help them maximise crop yields while reducing their water footprint. The recommendations are based on meteorological data, soil type and crop type, as well as other parameters. Agrow CEO Antonella Maggioni is grateful for the US company's collaboration “to promote the agricultural technology revolution in Aragon, helping farmers reduce their water footprint while maintaining productive and profitable operations”.

Finally, AWS will collaborate with Huesca City Council in replacing a section of the San Julián de Banzo pipeline, which supplies water to its 56,000 inhabitants and has deteriorated due to its age and the abundance of sediment. The new pipeline, made of more modern materials, will improve the route to the reservoir, as well as improving the system’s reliability and operational capacity.

^{Photo: AWS}