Drink More Recycled Wastewater

There is no room for squeamishness in the face of the world’s growing water shortage — three steps could vastly improve the image of reused water for drinking.

Drinkable water is becoming increasingly scarce. Population growth, pollution and climate change mean that more cities are being forced to search for unconventional water sources. In a growing number of places, drinking highly treated municipal wastewater, called ‘reused water’, has become the best option — and, in some cases, the only one.

By Cecilia Tortajada and Pierre van Rensburg, 2020. Article published in Nature, Volume 577, pages 26-28. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-019-03913-6

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