South African civil rights organizations are demanding a halt to the construction of new data centers in the country until the consumption of scarce water, land, and electricity resources has been properly investigated.

South Africa has been positioning itself as Africa's primary data hub, with U.S. technology companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Equinix increasingly building digital infrastructure there. Civil society groups, however, have sounded the alarm over the lack of transparency surrounding these projects.

The country's human rights watchdog, the South African Human Rights Commission, told The Associated Press it has received more than 250 submissions from interested groups after calling for public input in May.

According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa hosts 70% of Africa's data center capacity, and the government views this as an opportunity in the global digital economy, inviting more tech companies to build digital infrastructure in the country. That positioning comes as demand for data center capacity worldwide is being driven upward by the growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, pushing technology companies to seek new locations for digital infrastructure.

As in other parts of the world, such as the U.S., where data center construction has expanded rapidly, the long-term environmental and societal impacts of these facilities are facing growing scrutiny. Communities and regulators in countries including Ireland, the Netherlands, and Chile have also raised questions about the strain data centers place on local electricity grids and water supplies, making South Africa's debate part of a broader global reckoning over the resource footprint of digital infrastructure.

The commission noted that South Africa has experienced "significant growth" in the establishment of data centers, cloud infrastructure, and related digital systems.

"A key issue emerging from the process is precisely the availability, consistency and transparency of information relating to matters such as electricity and water demand, land use, infrastructure requirements, environmental impacts and impacts on surrounding communities," said Dr. Eileen Carter, who leads the commission's preliminary process.

Among the recent municipal approvals that have drawn criticism is an Equinix hyperscale facility planned for Cape Town — a city that narrowly avoided a so-called "Day Zero" in 2018, when its taps were forecast to run dry because of severe water scarcity. Data centers typically consume large volumes of water for cooling, which is why water usage has become a central point of contention in water-stressed regions.

South Africa's recent experience with widespread power cuts, known as "loadshedding," has also fueled concerns about the estimated 160 megawatts of electricity required to run the facility. For comparison, 160 megawatts is roughly the scale of demand associated with tens of thousands of households, though the exact figure varies with usage patterns.

The country appears to have overcome its electricity crisis, with state power utility Eskom reporting a surplus during the winter peak-demand season, but civil society groups remain wary of that surplus being allocated to data centers.

Some experts argue that the call for a temporary halt to further approvals should not be interpreted as a rejection of foreign investment, but rather as a mechanism for establishing clear rules, particularly around transparency.

"Serious investors are not deterred by clear rules. They price uncertainty, and an unregulated boom is the most uncertain environment of all," said Pitso Tsibolane, a senior lecturer in Information Systems at the University of Cape Town.

He said one of the major problems is that operators are not required to disclose, in binding terms, how much water, electricity, and land they will use, meaning every proposal is evaluated without the underlying numbers.

Industry operators have cautioned against comparing South African data centers to large-scale facilities in the U.S., where water, land, and power requirements are far higher. They point out that Eskom currently has a power surplus and that most data centers increasingly rely on renewable energy.

"It should be clear that the growth in energy demand due to data centers is not contributing to electricity scarcity in South Africa and that this increasing demand is not a cause of rising electricity tariffs," said Sasha Booth-Beharilal, chairperson of the Internet Service Providers' Association, which represents tech companies operating in the sector and running data centers in the country.

"Local data centers apply new technologies to minimize their water usage, which is substantially lower than the global average," she added.

The Human Rights Commission's preliminary process is ongoing, and its outcomes — along with how municipal approvals such as the Equinix facility are handled — are likely to shape the terms under which foreign tech investment in South African digital infrastructure proceeds.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.