Across the world, 1 in 3 people do not have access to safe drinking water
According to Robert Glennon’s book “Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It” Americans use 24 gallons of water every day to flush their toilets, approximately 5.8 billion gallons in flushing toilets. What a waste!
Millions of dollars are spent in the US treating water for drinking quality when only 10% is used for drinking and cooking, while the rest is flushed down the toilet or drain. Therefore, using treated water for irrigation, gardening, and toilet flushing is a good way to preserve the resource.
However, the use of recycled water for drinking is less frequent, mainly because many people dislike the idea of water that has been in the toilet going to the taps. But countries like Singapore, Australia and Namibia, and states like California, Virginia, and New Mexico are already drinking recycled water, showing that purified wastewater to transform into drinking water can be safe and clean while helping to mitigate water shortages.
But, how do they do it?
There are many technologies that are used to recycle water, depending on how pure it needs to be and what it will be used for, but the best way to purify wastewater is through a sewage treatment plant.
The wastewater goes through a primary process in a sewage treatment plant, where the water is separated from the large solids, then enters the sedimentation tanks where, through a physical-chemical process, the residual sludge settles to the bottom and the foam rises to the surface. Once the water is separated, 80% of the solids have been removed, and wastewater is clean enough to be discharged into water bodies.
In secondary treatment, bacteria are added to the wastewater to ingest organic solids, producing secondary sludge that settles to the bottom. While in tertiary treatment, the water is filtered to remove the remaining solids and disinfected with chlorine.
The treated water receives a treatment that involves microfiltration of the remaining solids and through reverse osmosis, viruses and bacteria are eliminated. The water is then disinfected with ultraviolet (UV) light or ozone and hydrogen peroxide.
Finally, it is drained into tanks where it goes through the standard purification process that all drinking water is subjected to that meets the standards of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Who is already doing it?
San Diego is already drinking recycled water because it imports 85% of its water from Northern California and the Colorado River, where upstream communities like Las Vegas discharge wastewater that is then treated for drinking.
Singapore, without natural aquifers, has struggled to provide a sustainable water supply for its residents for decades.
Namibia, the driest country in southern Africa, has been drinking recycled water since 1969. Water recycling plants produce 35% of the water in Windhoek, the capital. To date, there have been no negative health impacts related to the consumption of recycled water.
Recent studies found no adverse health effects in populations that use recycled water. Although the scientists acknowledged that the effects of long-term exposure to substances that have not yet been detected are unknown, they concluded that there was “strong evidence that recycled water represents a source of safe drinking water.”
If you are interested in know more about how you can recycle water in your facilities or community, contact Bclear to discover it.