Help needed to settle a workplace discussion please! (well, it beats working!)?

Question

Does anyone know (as in know!, not guesses please!) if the water we drink (in Britain) contains reused and recycled waste water (as in the water we bathe in and flush down the loo). If you dont know, dont answer thanks!!

Answer 1

yep, they treat it with these bacteria and they purify it and add chemicals thn send it back to you. i went to one of the water treatment plants, its not very pleasent.

Answer 2

all water is recycled, what you are asking is is it directly from waste just treated, answer is no.

Water is taken in from clean rivers and put through cleaning  (interestingly those cleaning systems can be deadly, imagine a whole load of chlorine gas...!) systems before we drink it.

Answer 3

i always do what im told not to do

Answer 4

All of the water in the world is, was and always will be reused and recycled.  Consider this,  Has any water gone away? I don't mean evaporate,I mean has it gone away,stopped existing?  Is there any new water?  The water that is in the atmosphere and in the earth at this very second is the same water that was in the atmosphere and in the earth when Ramses II swam in the Nile.  To think of all the magnificent events that have occurred in the earth over the last however many thousands of years. When you look at  that humble cup of water in your hand and think that it might have been the same cup of water at that spot, at that time in history.  Awesome concept don't you think?

Answer 5

Yes.

There is a joke that the water in the Thames is the purest in the world, on account of it having already passed through so many sets of kidneys...

Answer 6

i dont really know but i would say no it doesnt cause it comes from the resevoirs dunnit, but then i suppose that comes from the evaporated waste water? i dont know, ask the water company, if they deny it its probably true.

Answer 7

Depends where you are.  In the north and large areas of the south we get enough water from reservoirs.  However, in the south, especially london, where the population and water demand is high there are not enough primary sources and so water is recycled.  Same in any large city.

Answer 8

Yes it does. I believe the water extracted from the Thames is recycled six times before it gets used in London. There are many large towns on the River Thames upstream of London (Oxford, Reading, Swindon, Bracknell) that discharge their treated sewage into the river, which is used to supply London with water downstream.

Answer 9

What did you think happens to the water peopl send to the wastewater treatment plant?  After treatment, it gets discharged to a body of water. If that discharge point is upstream from the intake of your drinking water plant, it contributes to your drinking water, after further treatment, of course.

Answer 10

Yes  most definitely its all recycled  water, thats why i dont drink it.

Answer 11

yes we do...it goes through the sewage system, gets cleaned alot, goes into reservoirs and gets used all over again

xx

Answer 12

It is indeed recycled water.

Answer 13

I know definitely that Thames Water company use recycled water but our water supplier uses water from Surrey boreholes so it is unused.  Incidentally our waste goes to Thames Water!

Answer 14

It's a fact that a seweage treatment works will pump out treated water into a river and then further downstream there will be another abstraction for drinking water. However, the drinking water is further treated to removed microorganisms and particulates before chlorination/ozonation and delivery in the mains pipes.

Short answer: Yes.