Reclaimed Water. A respite to our water crisis!

Fresh potable water is a consumer right

It is the sacred duty of every responsible govt to provide its citizen with sufficient quantity of fresh potable water, which is his right as a consumer. Therefore, protection, development, and efficient management of available water resources of the country is the must task of a govt. Nearly every human activity—from agriculture to transportation to daily living—depend on water resources. Water resource development has played a significant role in flood control, agricultural production, industrial and energy development, fish and wildlife resource management, navigation, and a host of other activities.

But the global climatic change at an alarming rate, is affecting the availability of fresh water. There is substantial evidence that global temperatures have risen and will continue to rise. As a result of these, natural hydrologic features have changed, & may affect the distribution of potable water in the future. Further more pollution has decreased the quality of remaining water resources.Hence in near future, shortage of drinking & potable water is going to be a constant phenomena. There are a variety of measures that could be taken to tackle the potable water crisis. One of these may be reclaimed water.

Reclaimed water is waste water (sewage) that has been treated and purified for reuse, rather than discharged into a body of water. It is frequently used to irrigate play grounds, golf course ,gardens ,parks, fill decorative fountain, and to fight fire .It can also be used to irrigate crops, as long as they will be peeled or boiled before human consumption.

The matter of concern is that the treated effluent from wastewater treatment facilities is typically discharged directly into a stream, river, or other body. This recharges the water supply and promotes the natural decomposition of materials in the water that standard treatment practices would not normally be able to remove. But due to increasing population and increasing demand for reliable fresh water sources, many areas around the world are now using reclaimed water to decrease potable water demands.

In a basic sense, reclaimed water is treated effluent that is used for a broad range of practical purposes, most commonly irrigation.

The cost involved with reclaimed water is more than that of standard potable water in most of the regions of the world, where a fresh supply of water is plentiful. However, in areas where supplies of fresh water are limited, treating wastewater for reuse is becoming an economically attractive option, because it conserves drinking water. And generally it is sold to the citizens at a cheaper rate than standard drinking water. Again it also contains higher levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorus, which help to fertilize plants when used for irrigation.

But 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 pharmaceutical chemicals & pathogens 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.
• Many utilities providing reclaimed water for non potable uses. Actually do not treat the water to drinking standards.

Because of this, some regulatory agencies ban people from drinking, bathing in or filling Swimming pools with reclaimed water. Those who irrigate their lawn or plants with reclaimed water should place a sign on their property warning people not to drink from the irrigation system, and reclaimed water should not be sprayed directly on fruits or vegetables.

Some municipalities, who are hard pressed for supplying adequate amount of potable water, are now investigating either potable or non potable use of reclaimed water. For example, reclaimed water may be pumped into reservoirs where it will mix with (and be diluted by) rainwater. This mixture of rainwater and reclaimed water could then be treated again, and finally used as drinking water. This technique may also be referred to as groundwater recharging or reservoir augmentation.

Reclaimed water should be distributed with a dual pipe network, which keeps it completely separate from potable water pipes. For exm .in the U.S. reclaimed water is always distributed in light purple pipes to distinguish it from potable water.

In many cities of the world reclaimed water is now in such demand that consumers are allowed to use it only on assigned days. Some cities that previously offered unlimited reclaimed water at a flat rate are now beginning to charge citizens by the quantity they consume. It is sometimes said that water in London has been drunk five times before it arrived at the tap.

So why not to learn from them? May be with it lies some answer to ever increasing potable water scarcity of our country.

By: Shilpi Bhattacharjee