If you entered for the 2016 TSL essay and debate competition, you would remember that the essay title was “Are Sustainable Cities Possible?” And getting tap water from recycled waste water is just an example of one of such things that are being made possible.
In some parts of the world, the wastewater that flows down the drain – yes, including toilet flushes – is now being filtered and treated until it’s as pure as spring water, if not more so. The initiative has been aptly called “toilet-to-tap”
It might not sound appealing, but recycled water is safe and tastes like any other drinking water, bottled or tap.
If anything, recycled wastewater is relatively sweet
says Anas Ghadouani, an environmental engineer at the University of Western Australia in Crawley.
For areas suffering the effect of drought, and who have to contend with growing populations, incorporating recycled wastewater into the water supply is a viable option. Not only is recycling becoming a necessity, a sustainable water future will demand it.
So if you aren’t already drinking recycled wastewater, you soon will be. It’s what’s going to happen in the very near future.
Wastewater is much more than toilet water of course! It also includes relatively clean water from kitchen drains, from car washes, and other such places, all of which are an untapped resource, and put together can amount to several million litres of water! And what is more, if an average city recycled all its wastewater, it could reduce how much water it needed by as much as 60%.
Recycling wastewater for irrigation and other non-drinkable uses is already commonplace. It’s actually the same technology used to treat drinking water supplies that have become contaminated – and it’s been around for years. It generally follows the process highlighted below:
- First, you have to filter out all of the solids and other gunk in the water.
- Then, in a process called reverse osmosis, you filter out the tiniest of particles.
- And as an extra precaution, the water is often flashed with ultraviolet light to sterilise disease-causing microbes.
What About the Rain?
Another untapped water source is rain, and if you recycle wastewater and collect all the storm-water that drains into the gutter, you could provide water for an entire city.
Places like Singapore, Belgium, Windhoek in Namibia (an African country, should you wonder), and Wichita Falls in Texas have all begun recycling wastewater. Eventually, due to growing populations, so must the rest of the world – regardless of drought or climate change. It would come to a time when there will be no choice but to augment this to water supply sources.
So whatever you call the process – purification, recycling, or “toilet-to-tap” – it amounts to the same thing: clean water for all.