Stop Freaking Out About Drinking Recycled Poo-Water, Expert Says

The head of the UK’s Environment Agency says that people need to be ‘less squeamish’ about drinking “toilet-to-tap” water from treatment plants, as countries and states around the world move towards recycling sewage.

According to a Sunday op-ed in The Times, Sir James Bevan writes that “drinking recycled sewage is the future.”

“The recent rainfall hasn’t changed the underlying position in this country: many parts are likely to stay in drought for months, and if we have a dry winter then next year will be even more challenging,” Bevan writes. “We will need to be less squeamish about where our drinking water comes from. Part of the solution will be to reprocess the water that results from sewage treatment and turn it back into drinking water — perfectly safe and healthy, but not something many people fancy.”

Bevan’s op-ed comes as US water supplies are under strain due to an ongoing, and worsening drought which has resulted in ten areas being given drought status by the Environment Agency.

Because of this, he says that people simply need to “change the way they think about water,” and “treat it as a precious resource, not a free good.”- READ MORE