Water Wheel March/April 2025: Water Reuse

Abstract

Sipping the light fantastic - Demonstration project reveals more about the potential for water reuse A delightful beer ad on British television in the ’80s, parodied My Fair Lady. In it a posh young woman battles with elocution lessons, making no progress until offered a can of Heineken. Crack, hiss… a single sip does the trick. Instantly shedding her cut-glass accent, she pours out her lines in the desired Cockney, to her tutor’s delight. “The wa’ah in madge orca don’t taste like wot it or’ah.” (The water in Majorca [Mallorca] don’t taste like what it ought to.) Some things can be hard to get your tongue around (or swallow) without some help. We’ve long been able to treat wastewater to a high (drinkable) standard but have yet to acquire an appetite for it. Direct potable reuse is about treating wastewater to a potable standard and then putting it to good use directly, rather than discharging it into the environment.

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