The Clean Water You Drink was Sewage Water Once
Some societies more than other baulk at the thought of drinking treated sewage water. Whereas many subject themselves to a literal hand to mouth transfer of water that leads to deadly water-borne diseases – some of which is due to ignorance in simple hygienic practices – there are others who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that matter cannot be created or destroyed. That water can and does go through a regenerative cycle and regains the purity that distilled water has.
Our perceptions on the water cycle are deeply flawed and much is related to the inherent ignorance that energy consumption plays in the entire water cycle. The primary aim must lie in reducing water pollution and the secondary goal should be in rejuvenating water with minimal energy. This is again a call to, especially in big cities, cut down on the size of centralized treatment plants and have more local sewage treatment that can effectively carry out the process at a lower price, with many advantages such as reductions in energy consumption and recovery of exothermic energy for local use either for heating and/or electricity generation.
Present day sewage treatment plants carry out a combined mechanical and biological treatment process, thereby discharging the water into large flow water bodies. These water bodies later serve as a source of drinking water. A partial closed loop process that has been effective in providing clean drinking water where such facilities are available and large water bodies are a perennial source.
The paradigm shift that many have to face is the need to close and shorten the loop, leading to a quick turnaround that could lead to a 50% and higher reduction in the need for fresh water. It is possible, using today’s technology, to recycle water and reuse it. See my blog entry on The Darn Energy Shift and the need for decentralized solutions.
All that stands in the way in the words of Carol Nemeroff is “It is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water, even after the real sewage is gone.”
We need to get the dirt out of our minds! NPR has a feature on ‘Why Cleaned Wastewater Stays Dirty In Our Minds‘.
