Government authorizes Tiktok Data Center construction in an area with a history of drought in Ceará

The municipality of Caucaia, in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza (CE), was chosen to house a new Tiktok Data Center, estimated at R $ 55 billion.

The initiative is part of an offensive from the federal government to attract investments from large technology companies, but raises questions about environmental impacts and water availability in the region.

According to the site report Intercept Brasilthe project will be conducted by Casa dos Ventos, a company that specializes in wind energy, which has already obtained prior license to start building.

The city of Caucaia has been selected by its strategic geographical position, near the submarine communication cables that ensure higher speed in data traffic, as well as integrating an export processing zone (SPA), with tax benefits and bureaucracy for companies.

During the negotiations that culminated in the choice of the city, the federal government would not have consulted environmental regulatory agencies or included the Ministry of Environment in meetings, as determined by the Intercept. The meeting between Tiktok representatives and the government took place in December 2024 during Geraldo Alckmin’s interim in the presidency of the Republic.

The choice of site rekindles the debate on the use of water resources by data centers. Although seen as technological structures, these complexes require high water and energy consumption to keep servers refrigerated, running in a continuous regime. This operational requirement contrasts with Caucaia’s climate history.

Data from Digital Disaster Atlas in Brazil and the Integrated Disaster Information System show that the municipality has been under emergency or drought emergency in 16 of the last 21 years.

In 2019, approximately 10,000 residents were affected by water scarcity. Prolonged coexistence with drought makes the region vulnerable to supply imbalances, especially in the face of the installation of high water demand ventures.

The absence of detailed environmental evaluation on the impact of the new data center aggravates the concern of experts. The report also identified that three major data center projects are on the use of being permitted to operate in municipalities with recurring drought records: Campo Redondo, Rio Grande do Norte, and Igaporã, Bahia, are among the mapped destinations.

Despite the repercussions, Tiktok did not answer the questions sent by the report. Casa dos Ventos, in turn, said it was “committed to turning the Port of Pecém into a technology innovation complex and energy transition”.

The company also reported that the project includes “the largest data of Datacenter and Green Hydrogen in the country” and that it is “analyzing opportunities for partnership with companies that can be complementary in the viability of enterprises.”

The project dispute also involved other technology companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, which showed interest in installing the data center. Tiktok was the company selected to join the initial project in Caucaia.

The absence of environmental instances in the negotiations and the choice of areas with a history of water scarcity bring to light questions about the policy of attracting technological investment in the country.

Experts warn that, although promising from an economic point of view, projects of this size need to be preceded by in -depth water and energy feasibility studies, especially in regions facing recurring climate vulnerabilities.

To date, there is no forecast of public hearings or dissemination of environmental impact studies related to the Data Center of Caucaia. The prior license already granted to Casa dos Ventos signals the advance of construction, albeit without wide dissemination of the technical criteria that supported the decision.

The federal government did not comment on the criteria used in choosing places for enterprises. There is also no confirmation on any compensatory measures or mitigation of the effects of water and energy consumption provided for in the project.

Caucaia’s case is part of a broader context of digital infrastructure expansion in Brazil, driven by increasing data traffic and the interest of large global companies in operating from the national territory.

The search for economic attractiveness, however, makes room for controversy when strategic decisions collide with long -term social and environmental weaknesses.