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Paper short abstract

The paper draws on a research project assessing the water governance impact of Intel’s semiconductor production in Ireland. It is to present qualitative data collected over the first six months of the project on the many water infrastructures that altogether constitute Intel’s Irish water catchment.

Paper long abstract

In a context of climate change, risks arising from water scarcity are foreseen to grow dramatically. While Ireland may be seen as a well water-resourced country – the paradigmatic wet, green Island – Dublin, its largest city, is under increased water supply pressure. State-owned water utility Uisce Éireann argue that current water supply shortfalls are already putting at risk 1.7 million residents of the Greater Dublin Area. Access to water infrastructure itself is highly uneven with over 1000 households in the same Greater Dublin Area without piped running water (Plumbing Poverty Project). What is more, large-scale water infrastructure projects put forward to address these shortfalls are widely contested.

Against this backdrop, since the start of its operation in Ireland in 1989, Intel has been quietly shaping the country’s water infrastructure landscape. Located in Leixlip, west of Dublin, the semiconductor production facility has rapidly become the largest industrial water user in the country. In 2022, its monthly water usage was equivalent to the monthly usage of over 96,000 households.

The paper draws on a research project assessing the water governance impact of Intel’s semiconductor production in Ireland. It is to present qualitative data collected over the first six months of the project on a wide range of water infrastructures that altogether constitute Intel’s water catchment: bogs, rivers, reservoirs, treatment plants, stormwaters, groundwaters, seawaters. At the intersection of environmental justice and feminist STS, the research asks whose water ontologies and water futures are being dis/empowered within and through Intel’s semiconductor production process.