Drinking Recycled Sewage Water: The Debate

Would you drink treated sewage water?

From Reader's Digest Magazine

Drinking treated sewage is a proposition as emotionally wrought as it is scientifically feasible. That’s why the editors at Reader’s Digest thought it was time to gather together the facts and arguments on both sides of the issue. Here they are, then, and we leave it to you to make up your own mind

Not a big deal: The yuck factor

Three in four say yes
Polls conducted by the University of Wollongong, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald have found that three-quarters of Australians are in favour of drinking recycled water.

Just semantics?
For Chris Davis, CEO of the Australian Water Association (AWA) and a water engineer with over 30 years’ experience, it’s a matter of how you phrase the question. “People naturally say no to drinking ‘recycled sewage’. But ‘purified recycled water’ is OK.”

It’s about education
“When we give the public the opportunity to consider the topic, some of them will have the typical ‘yuck’ response,” says Greg Hampton, a water management expert. “But once provided with information and the opportunity to have their questions answered, some will accept the idea.”

Public debate necessary
In Goulburn, perhaps with an eye to the divisive early referendum in Toowoomba, there has been a more extensive community consultation process over the options such as indirect potable recycling.

Moves are underway to educate Australians about recycled drinking water, with the Federal Government spending $200,000 on the cause.

Paul Stephenson, mayor of the drought-stricken NSW town of Goulburn: “We’d like to build a new treatment plant. We have an antiquated sewage works that we have to upgrade and in the end we’d only get a mediocre plant. Why not build a modern one that does two things?

“The advantage is we’d have an integrated system, where the potable water can go straight into the existing mains and filtration system, without having to be transported across town. The treated drinking water would be available to us sooner and the whole system would be more efficient.”

Where do they do it?

In Namibia, since 1968, the town of Windhoek has used recycled sewage directly for drinking water during droughts or emergencies.

Orange County in North Virginia, USA, and the South African cities of Scottsdale, Pretoria and Cape Town rely on indirect schemes, where recycled sewage is introduced back into a river, dam or aquifer where it mixes with the rest of the water before being retreated for drinking.

In Singapore, about 1% of recycled sewage water is used for drinking.

Big deal: The yuck factor

Brown barrier
Can we get past the psychological barrier of drinking water that was once sewage?

In 2005 and 2006, the University of Wollongong held a series of focus groups on the subject – participants wanted safeguards to remove hormones, they worried about potential failures in the system, and wondered if they’d trust information about the purity of water. Strangely, people were more worried about showering in recycled sewage than drinking it, says the university’s Greg Hampton, which demonstrates for some that the correlation between more personal uses and rejection of recycled water does not always hold.

Recycled effluent
“The issue isn’t about producing safe recycled water at a risk level that’s low enough that it doesn’t constitute a serious risk. The issue is the public perception of drinking s--t,” says Dr John Radcliffe, commissioner of the National Water Commission.

Failed attempts
Last year, Toowoomba City Council tried to introduce a $68 million scheme to treat waste water and use it to top up drinking water supplies in Cooby Dam. Local lobby group Citizens Against Drinking Sewage collected 10,000 signatures against the proposal because of health concerns. The council lost a poll and abandoned the scheme, which aimed to fix the city’s critical water shortage.

Drinking Recycled Sewage Water: The Debate

Would you drink treated sewage water?

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