"It's liquid gold, it's a matter of life and death" - Australia's Water Crisis

The cheapest non-destructive method is the ye old "wait and see" method.

Australian rainfall patterns during La Niña events

Floods set to revitalise cattle areas ABC Online, Australia
Rain could boost bush Courier Mail, Australia

Meanwhile, they should make efforts to reduce drought impact in the future, because mother nature may not be so accommodating in Mad Max land.

As for drinking recycled sewage water:

Reclaimed Water Wiki
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.

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.

I see a market boom for home water purification systems and bottled water.

Invest now and offset your future costs...



[edit on 29-1-2007 by Regenmacher]

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
Now, the idea of drinking former sewage is disgusting, but it's really quite sensible.

I'm not sure about other parts of the world but here in the US, if you drink from the tap, you're drinking recycled water. Water goes out someone's sewerage facility into the river, only to be taken in by the downstream town's water supply.

Granted that both the sewer treatment and water treatment plants both clean the water, but it is still recycled water.

BTW, the water from the sewage plants is actually cleaner than the river water. I had a professor at college that took us to see the sewage treatment plant in our Univ. town (water treatment is part of Civil Engineering curriculum). He actually took a glass and filled it from the final treatment tank. He then drank it to show us that it was clean pure water.

Edit: Unless I'm mistaken on what actually is recycled water?

[edit on 1/29/2007 by Griff]

Massively beaten, but it is my understanding that a lot of countries already recycle their water for various purposes.

Also, water and resource management isnt handled by the federal government, its up to the individual states to make up their own legislation on the issue. It's my understanding that so far QLD is the only state to show any interest in using recycled water for human usage and that other states have already come out and said that they will not be using recycled water for anything but agriculture if at all.

And to the huge long insane rant on page one, there is no "1995 water legislation" nor is their any legislation prohibiting the collection of water from either rain or underground springs. in fact its very common and encouraged by all levels of government, some states even offer people various incentives just to collect their own rain water.

I dont see why the federal governments 10 Billion Dollar proposal to buy back all the water licenses over the next 10 years couldnt be put to better use improving desalination technology.

Has anyone here seen a movie called Tank Girl?? They battle for water in that movie. Also I saw an episode of New Inventors where a guy had invented a water purifier that used ultra violet light.

Originally posted by Duby78
Shots, you've missed my point.

I was not responding to your comments. I was responding to the comments made by WyrdeOne

lol mustbebc, I was going to mention Tank Girl, but you bet me too it. Good movie



And DOCK6, where on Earth did you get your information from? The Aussie government is encouraging people to buy rainwater tanks, and is even offering grants so more people will buy and install them.

And just last night I watched an article on the news that showed people that had dropped wells to tap into ground water from their own suburban backyards in Melbourne.
Perhaps you should go out and research things a bit more thoroughly.

Indeed, I understand it's a relatively common practice, and I myself am not against drinking recycled water - I've had worse from streams.

My point was only that when people think about drinking processed sewage, it's disgusting, the notion puts people off, that's all.

Under global trade agreements, water is a human need and not a human right. A distinction in their legalese between that which must be supplied because of common decency and that which is subject to supply and demand.
Conserve all you like, once the treatment plants are privatized the industry owns the water and can ship it to wherever the money is. The only thing that is going to insure you have water is money or learning to dowse.
Water Corporations are multi-national, their annual profits exceed pharmas.
In cases of dowsing, as a human need, they will be permitted to prosecute you for stealing their groundwater. Even if it's on your land.

Tank Girl was good mustbebc. Remember the dog-men chimeras. lol

If weren`t for my excellent condition nip of nerve which kicked in as fast as the lightning,making my orifice tighter than a fish's waste outlet it may have been embarrassing.
gp777

lol
I'm so glad you're alright.

If weren`t for my excellent condition nip of nerve which kicked in as fast as the lightning,making my orifice tighter than a fish's waste outlet it may have been embarrassing.
gp777

Originally posted by clearwater
lol

I'm so glad you're alright.

Are you glad for my excellent condition nip off.........or that the lightning didn`t hit me?

OH doesn`t matter,i`ll take it as both,me too .

Thank you very much clearwater

Well this is interesting or scary, depends on your outlook on things.
I'd say both in my case.

Melbourne Water Stores to last 18 Months

The alarming water shortfall has prompted experts to warn that the state won't cope with a population increase.

...they needed experts to tell us this?