Would you drink recyled sewage water?

Question

In australia we have a chronic water shortage and some local governments are looking at recyling sewage,i would never drink it.no matter how safe they say it is ,would you drink it?

Answer 1

Reclaimed water is wastewater (sewage) that has been treated and purified for reuse, rather than discharged into a body of water. It is frequently used to irrigate golf courses and parks, fill decorative fountains, and fight fires. It can also be used to irrigate crops, as long as they will be peeled or boiled before human consumption.

This what it is called reclaimed water, and yes I would drink it seeing that went through a lot of processes to clean it.

Here are some country which practicing drinking it:Singapore

Here's an article from wikipedia on its suitability for drinking:

Reclaimed water is not directly mixed with potable (drinking) water for several reasons:

Humans may face psychological barriers against drinking reclaimed water, since it was formerly sewage.
Small amounts of pathogens and pharmaceutical chemicals are able to pass through the filtering process, potentially causing danger to humans. Modern technologies such as Reverse Osmosis are helping to overcome this problem. An experiment by the University of New South Wales showed a Reverse Osmosis system removed Ethinylestradiol and Paracetamol from the waste water, even at 1000 times the expected ppm.[1]
Many utilities providing reclaimed water for nonpotable uses do not treat the water to drinking water standards.
Because of this, regulatory agencies ban people from drinking, bathing in or filling swimming pools with reclaimed water. Those who irrigate their lawn or plants with reclaimed water should place a sign on their property warning people not to drink from the irrigation system, and reclaimed water should not be sprayed directly on fruits or vegetables.

Some municipalities are now investigating either potable or indirect potable use of reclaimed water. For example, reclaimed water may be pumped into reservoirs where it will mix with (and be diluted by) rainwater. This mixture of rainwater and reclaimed water could then be treated again, and finally used as drinking water. This technique may also be referred to as groundwater recharging or reservoir augmentation.

Some cities using water from rivers are using water that contains effluent discharged from upstream sewage treatment plants. It is sometimes said that water in London has been drunk five times before it arrived at the tap, but this is an exaggeration. There are many large towns on the River Thames upstream of London (Oxford, Reading, Swindon, Bracknell) that discharge their treated sewage into the river, which is used to supply London with water downstream. This phenomenon is also observed in the United States, where the Mississippi River serves as both the destination of sewage treatment plant effluent and the source of potable water. Research conducted in the 1960s by the London Metropolitan Water Board demonstrated that the maximum extent of recycling water is about 11 times before the taste of water induces nausea in sensitive individuals. This is caused by the build up of inorganic ions such as Cl-, SO42-, K+ and Na+, which are not removed by conventional sewage treatment.

Answer 2

If your local source is a river or lake, you are already probably drinking it. One town treats their sewage, puts it in the river, then the next town takes their water out of the river. The water is already sewage for the animals in the area. In many cases, the recycled sewage will be cleaner than river water or well water used now (especially in third world countries). As long as it is done correctly, it will work. In some proposals, the treated sewage will be returned to the headwaters of a large lake. Some calculations show that that water will take 5-10 years before it makes it back into drinking water on average.

Answer 3

We already do, but advances in technology have made it possible to do so safely. Sewage is recycled by separating solids from the water, and purified using chlorination and enzymes to destroy bacteria. The solids are dried, ground and then further composted and used as agricultural fertilizer, and often labeled 'organic'. The reclaimed water is not directly placed back into the water supply, but discharged via pipeline into the oceans to allow natural recycling before being reused in municipal water supplies. I am not entirely sure of every detail, but this is roughly how it works. And, yes I drink tap water and live in an urban area, so by default I already do. Thank God for Brita!!!

Answer 4

I know in Europe and in Canada there are areas where you are drinking water that was once in sewage. But it has been cleaned.

The thing is places are putting their sewage treatment centres upstream from their water treatment so that they HAVE to make sure their sewage is cleaned up properly. I lived in a city that was along the river where they dump their treated sewage into afterwards and the water tastes just fine.

Hope that helps

Answer 5

You drink it all the time, you just don't see it that way. Water in a river is not pure, there are fish in it defecating and creatures up stream doing the same thing. Every drop of water on this planet has probably passed through more than one digestive system. what's getting to you is you know for a fact it has and relatively recently. If it distilled or properly purified there is no problem with it.

Answer 6

I don't think so. At least I wouldn't if I knew it was directly recycled from sewage. But a worst case scenario might just make me go back on my words. You never can tell.

Answer 7

You do and have.
Water is recycle for centuries.
So the glass of water you got was sewage at one time or the other.

Drinking water out of the tap is just as good as bottle water.

Answer 8

I drink sewage anyway so yes I would drink it.

Answer 9

Good luck mate

Answer 10

So long as it was all H2O, how would you know?