Poll results: Should we be ‘less squeamish’ about our drinking water?

Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir James David Bevan KCMG said that ‘rivers and reservoirs are exceptionally low, and millions are subjected to a hosepipe ban’.

This can be seen in 10 English regions deemed to be in drought status by Environment Agency.

The situation in Europe appears more precarious, with ships unable to move in Germany’s Rhine River and tankers taking water to parts of France ‘where the taps have run dry’.

Sir James wrote ‘we need to remember where it [water] comes from: when we turn on the tap, what comes out started in a river, lake or aquifer. The more we take, the more we drain those sources’.

One solution is to reprocess sewage into drinking water, a move acknowledged by Sir James as ‘not something many people fancy’.

This summer’s record-breaking high temperatures – and the strain they have placed on water resources – should come as a reminder that water is, in Sir James’ words ‘a precious resource’.

Indeed, in 2015 the government’s Department of International Trade said that ‘without interventions and innovations, water demand in England and Wales is forecast to rise from 16.6 billion litres of water per day to 24.8 billion by 2050’.

The department added that globally, ‘two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants could live in water-stressed conditions by 2025, exacerbated by the demands of a growing population, increased urbanisation and climate change.’

Water treatment options such as indirect potable reuse and direct potable reuse have gained traction in arid regions of the US, plus Australia and South Africa. Would such ‘toilet-to-tap’ schemes be palatable in the UK where waste water is routinely treated and re-used? Hot summers like the one we’re currently experiencing are predicted to become more frequent, adding strain to resources that are already stretched.

As such, we asked if Sir James is right, that we must be ‘less squeamish’ about where our drinking water comes from, or is the idea too outlandish to contemplate and there is always the risk of disease? The Poll is closed but your comments are welcome.