Global heavyweights – Microsoft, Nvidia, ByteDance – are pouring billions into vast data centres, the digital foundries that underpin the international AI industry and cloud economy.

For Malaysia’s government, these investments are nothing short of transformative, representing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to vault ahead in Southeast Asia’s technology race.

But for Johor residents like Muhammad Azrien Mohammad Ali, the future arrives with a simple, daily anxiety: will water still flow from the tap?

“This year I have experienced three water disruptions,” the 35-year-old told This Week in Asia. “The water supply is there but it is now low compared to before.”

Earlier this month, almost a million people faced supply disruptions after pollution shut down several treatment plants along the Johor River – the latest symptom of a long-running water crisis in Malaysia’s most drought-prone state.