It’s time for SA to seriously consider recycled wastewater
If 300,000 Namibians use recycled sewage water for drinking, why should South Africans pooh-pooh the idea
Owing to SA’s dwindling water resources, South Africans must seriously consider using recycled water for basic needs. The reality is that water stressed-countries have long resorted to using grey water for drinking, cooking and washing. If 300,000 Namibians can use recycled sewage water for drinking, what reason do South Africans have to pooh-pooh the idea. After all, we are rated by the World Bank as among 30 dry countries in the world that will become a desert in 30 years unless we start saving water now. According to Josef Menge, author of Treatment of Wastewater for Re-use in the Drinking Water System of Windhoek, while certain people are of the opinion that re-used water is of a better quality than the water reticulated to millions of consumers, the principle is still rejected by many the world over. Why is it, then, that Windhoek, for the past 35 years, is still the only city in the world directly reclaiming treated wastewater effluent for drinking water? Situated in the centr...
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