Don’t pooh-pooh loo-to-tap option

In typical investigative instinct, the media is causing a storm in a tea cup about the possibility of re-using treated domestic wastewater.

This follows an international conference in Durban focusing on water re-use for drinking purposes.

While the media attention pushes this intervention to relieve our looming water shortages into the public domain, it also hypes this subject.

That water re-use is an option to augment our dwindling water supply is not new. The National Water Resource Strategy released by the Department of Water Affairs in 2004 suggested the option of water re-use alongside other augmentation options.

In its overview statistics on water requirements and availability, the strategy noted that fresh water resources in South Africa are limited, unevenly distributed and almost fully developed.

Therefore, in the exercise to reconcile water requirements with availability, various options like inter-basin transfers, water re-allocation, water conservation and water demand management, water re-use and eradication of alien vegetation have to be undertaken if the country is to be assured of security of supply.

What most people probably don’t realise is that about 14 percent of the water used in South Africa is already water that has been used before it finds its way back into river systems from return flows, wastewater treatment works and irrigation.

What is virtually guaranteed to grab the attention of the public and create a negative impression in this debate is the notion of the so-called loo-to-tap.

This specifically refers to the direct or indirect use of treated domestic waste water for drinking purposes and has raised alarms from a number of quarters in the country with some sectors putting forward religious and ethical arguments.

A section of the eThekwini community has gone as far as threatening class action in the Constitutional Court against what they call “second-class water”.

Some have raised environmental concerns regarding waste that could be generated from the re-use of water while others are concerned about water quality itself, given the challenges faced by most of our struggling local municipalities, as reflected in their Green Drop and Blue Drop status ratings.

Given all this, it is fair to say that the main reason for this option being seriously considered especially in the urban centres like Cape Town, Durban and Joburg, which constitute the economic heartlands of our society, is the increasing need for water, which is limited.

It is also fair to make the point that in the 21st century, there is no such thing as “pure water” in the world. All the water that we drink and use today is water that has been recycled many times. So claims that the re-use of domestic waste water will lead to people drinking “second-class” water are unfounded.

Every drop of water on Earth has been there in one form or another since creation, it cannot become more or less, and is thus in a constant cycle of use and re-use.

In fact, water scientists agree that the available technologies are sufficiently developed to produce completely safe drinking water from previously used water for direct use.

One delegate summed it up well: “Anything wet can be turned into drinkable water, if you filter it through enough money.”

The challenge for all of us, including the water experts and professionals in the water sector, is the need to de-stigmatise the use of treated domestic waste water.

Words like “loo-to-tap” create an impression of impurity about this otherwise viable and advanced option.

In Singapore, where the re-use of water has been a subject of research since the 1950s as one source of raw water to supplement their water supply, such negative words as “waste water” and “re-use” have long been discarded and replaced by words such as “new water” and “used water”.

They called their reclaimed water “NeWater”.

The US has been re-using water in many states for over 20 years.

Another shining example across our own border is Namibia, where not a single water-related sickness has been reported as a result of using domestic waste water treated to potable standard.

This country has been using their system since 1968 and the Windhoek public has been enjoying its water supply ever since.

Domestically, Beaufort West is proving to be a catalyst in the exercise of this option with the first direct water re-use reclamation plant in South Africa.

The plant in Beaufort West is working very well and the water meets the required drinking standards in terms of the World Health Organisation Drinking Water Quality Regulations.

So there is nothing new really about the re-use of domestic waste water, except the perceptions and anxieties of a few in society who still need to get used to the idea.

The authorities though do need to give the country some kind of confidence about the integrity of this option.

They need to explain it in the context of other water supply options taking into account the impact on the environment, water quality issues and the potential for increased energy usage.

There is also the vexing question of the scarce skills required to implement and maintain these hi-tech plants, especially in the water sector where the shortage of skilled staff has a negative impact on how water systems are managed at local municipality level. As evidenced in Beaufort West, domestic waste water re-use technologies are not too expensive and this is the most viable option for the short term for many towns and cities.

With the reality of a steady growth in water requirements in South Africa and the world, we can’t afford to be finicky and disregard rescue options such as the use of treated domestic waste water.