Communications on Technological Innovations: Potable Water Reuse

Water scarcity has prompted an increasing number of cities to look for non-conventional sources of clean water. One of these sources is reused water, or highly treated reclaimed or recycled wastewater, a worthy addition to the portfolio of water-resource alternatives that increasing cities are considering in view of demographic and environmental changes. In this paper, we analyse communications from the media, policymakers and utility managers on the technology used to produce reused water for potable purposes. The focus of our analysis is technology as a means for producing safe and reliable water supply in the long-term. Three places were selected because of their differing experiences with social acceptance: Singapore, Orange County (California, United States), and Queensland (Australia). We found distinct differences in the communications used in the three places, which we believe have strongly influenced public opinion on the provision of clean water through potable water reuse. In communicating technological innovations to the public, it is essential to also discuss the broader framework affecting reliable water supplies. In this light, planning, legal and regulatory frameworks, institutional coordination, financial sustainability, and operational aspects should also be communicated.

Cecilia Tortajada and Sunil Nambiar, 2019, Water, Volume 11, Issue 2, 251 (article number). https://doi.org/10.3390/w11020251

Media

Taxonomy

• Potable
• Water Reuse & Recycling
• Technology

1 Comment

1. Hello 

   when I read this kind of article I have the hairs of my body that bristle. 

   We never find any traces of living, biological, in CST exposed.

   How can one think that a man with his technique can be able to produce a drinking water that nature takes years to produce? Unthinkable.

   Drinking water must be clean, free of any dissolved pollution.

   Domestic wastewater contains many dissolved pollutants, bio-chemical and chemical.

   Each non-organic pollutant must be purified or purified by a specific purification treatment appropriate to its molecular chemical characteristic. 

   Each bio-chemical or chemical pollutant must be extracted and separated from any contact with other chemical pollutants.

   This is the reason why chemical manufacturers are rejecting their pollution in the unitary system of domestic sewage.

   A factor determining the inability to purify the waste water of these chemical pollutants: the Inter-action of each chemical molecule between it and the contact or presence of oxygen.

   Under no circumstances shall waste water be recycled with the objective of being consumable by man under any penalty of crime against humanity. 

   The same goes for the disalienation of sea water. All sanitation services, all bio-chemical or chemical pollution are dispersed in surface hydraulic environments. Taking this polluted water to make drinking 

   water is inconceivably biologically speaking. What also surprises me most is not that a person communicates on such a demented project, it is that no Renon biologist intervenes.