A drought-hit Australian town could not swallow the idea of drinking recycled sewage water and rejected the water-saving option in a referendum.
Toowoomba, 140 km west of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, would have become the nation's first town to supplement drinking water with recycled waste water, a practice used in Israel, Singapore, the US and parts of Europe.
In the end, the "yuck factor" meant Toowoomba's 100,000 residents overwhelmingly voted against the idea despite a decade of tough water regulations resulting from the worst drought in 100 years in parts of Australia.
"The majority of the Toowoomba community does not support the indirect potable reuse of recycled water," said Australia's parliamentary secretary for water, Malcolm Turnbull.
"I respect that decision. Reuse of recycled water for drinking purposes in the manner proposed is sustainable and it is safe. But, as I have said many times, it is not compulsory."
If residents had voted "yes", 25 per cent of their drinking water would have come from recycled water in a $A68 million scheme. The water is filtered through a complex membrane in a process known as reverse osmosis.
Turnbull said recycling water was important for Australia as demand was expected to exceed supply from existing water sources in nearly all major Australian cities within the next 20 years.
3 comments:
did you know you might be drinking recycled crap???
Many people voted No, not because of any scare tactics, but because they had read the Council's NWC funding application that Mayor Thorley tried to keep secret. This document showed the project as being fundamentally flawed.
The Water Futures project was never a solution - where was the RO waste stream going to go. Where was Thorley going to hide it? Acland Coal didn't want it. Without their involvement, the project's cost doubled. How high would rates be then?
You will be surprised at how quickly other water source options are now adopted for Toowoomba.
<~~~ puts all my pans on the stove to boil my water !
Thanks anon ,it's amazing what mayors & councillors will try to hide from the unknowing public
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