Would you drink this water?

[nostamj]

Would you drink this water?
NEWater looks like any other glacier-clear bottled H20. Except it gushes from the toilets of Singapore instead of a bubbling spring.


- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Corrie Pikul


Oct. 22, 2004 | The promotional bottle for Singapore's NEWater looks like any other bottled water, right down to its snappy name and bright label. And it tastes the same as other premium bottled-water brands -- maybe even better, if you prefer the metallic edge of Evian to the airy sweetness of Poland Springs. But while NEWater is transparent, its story is not, and it's frankly not terribly appetizing.

NEWater is the product of Singapore's new water-treatment system, and it is wastewater that has been purified through advanced synthetic membranes called ZeeWeed. That's right: The crystal-clear NEWater that gushes through the country's faucets isn't gurgling from a mountain spring. Most recently, it was flushed from a toilet.

The water is first treated in a traditional water plant before going through a three-stage purification that uses high-quality ZeeWeed membranes, which filter out even the most microscopic bacteria. By the time it's processed, NEWater meets all the drinking-water standards specified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/the_big_idea/2004/10/22/big_idea_10_22/index.html

[rkc3]

1. Piss boy. Bring me my water. Chop-chop.

[FlaGranny]

2. Astronauts have been drinking

wastewater for years. Not very appetizing, but when you think about it, the water you're drinking today probably passed through a dinosaur at one time.

[proReality]

6. The water we're drinking today contains

all kinds of artificial hormones from birth control pills and Viagra and everything else that passes through our bodies. Not to mention fecal coliform and steroids from animal waste, and toxic waste from industry. Only so much of it can be filtered out of the water.

Sorry, but it's true.

[Atlant]

Dinosaur? No need to wait *THAT* long!

> but when you think about it, the water you're drinking today probably passed through a dinosaur at one time.

As Tom Lehrer so cogently put it in his song Pollution:

"The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay...
They drink for lunch in San Jose!"


Here in New England, it's not at all uncommon that towns and cities
along our rivers take in drinking water at the upstream end of town
and flush out wastewater at the downstream end of town. (Which, of
course, is just upstream from the next town or city along the river!)

Along the Merrimack River, we have Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua,
Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill whom I believe all do exactly this
(although not all of these towns and cities use river water all of
the time).

Atlant

[FlaGranny]

12. No need to wait that long,

for sure. ;-) I really prefer not to think of where the water I drink has been in the past.

I've been doing a lot of research on water treatment lately because I have tannins in my water, making it look ugly, although it is safe. One thing mentioned over and over is how many lives have been saved by water treatment methods. I use an activated carbon filter for my drinking water (which comes from a treatment facility) just to be doubly sure, but it doesn't get the yellow out of the water. It's an aesthetic thing, but subconsciously reminds you where the water has been in the past and makes you not want to drink it.

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. No.

That is too gross for words. :puke: ACK!!!

[mastein]

4. Let's do some math here

3 billion people x somewhere near half a liter of urine per day per person... you get the idea.

This looks like neat technology that could give us MORE PURE water. After all if it has been fully treated at a waste water site it can be released to the environment, which means it can go into the pipe down river for the next town, plus it has the extra membrane on top of it. THat is just damned resourceful.

[demnan]

5. Unless you live on the top of a mountain

You're drinking piss water every day. I know I do. My water comes from the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

14. thank God i do live on a mountiantop...ewwwww

[aeolian]

7. Hate to break it to you,

but just about ALL water (unless you're doing some chemistry at home) that we drink has been pissed in, shat in, dumped in, had things decay in it, and has been otherwise befouled innumerable times before we drink it.

Distill it, filter it, whatever. Water is Water.

It's Dihydrogen Monoxide that you need to worry about. :ph34r:

[nostamj]

8. of course but...

selling it as 'designer' water...?

(not that I buy water as a rule. when I need to carry a bottle of water, I take one of the OLD bottles that I keep filled in the freezer...

[aeolian]

10. agreed, that is very funny

A devilish side of me wants to get my hands on a few bottles and give them to one of those prissy pampered girls I know (you know, they'd bathe in Evian if they could). ...tell them what it was after they drank it. :)

[Neshanic]

9. Phoenix, meet your future. Oh, the real water is for the golf course.

[Atlant]

11. Yes!

> Phoenix, meet your future.

*THIS*, of course, is the real point that many of us on the surface
of Planet Earth should take away from this!

Atlant

[aeolian]

13. Just as long as they're not taking water from my

beloved Great Lakes just to put green lawns and golf courses, open swimming pools, and fountains in the middle of the friggin' desert.