People should ideally consume 8 cups of water every single day. Even if we don't consume that much water ourselves, water is used in most drinks, cooking, and farming. That means everyone consumes a lot of water. Drinking clean water is important, and you might be surprised to know that a lot of the best drinking water comes from treated wastewater. 

Dangers of Untreated Wastewater

Untreated wastewater, or sewage, contains bacteria, parasites, and viruses that can cause a variety of diseases if ingested. 

Bacterial diseases from wastewater include:

• bacillary dysentery
• cholera
• gastroenteritis
• paratyphoid
• typhoid

Parasites found in wastewater:

• protozoans
• helminths

Viral diseases from wastewater include:

• Hepatitis A
• Polio
• Viral gastroenteritis

While these ailments vary in severity and rarity, some can cause death in as quick as a day and should not be taken lightly. Anyone experiencing severe diarrhea or vomiting should go to a doctor as quickly as possible. People with impaired immune systems, the elderly, children, and people in poor, urban areas are the most at risk. Most people don't have to worry about wastewater anymore, though, because filtration systems have made wastewater entirely safe for people to drink.

Benefits of Treated Wastewater

New facilities are able to talk wastewater and turn them into clean, drinking water for everyone. For example, the Orange County water District takes 100 million gallons of wastewater per day and turns it into drinking water. This mixes with the regular water for 70% of Orange County residents. There are numerous benefits to using treated wastewater. Benefits include:

• clean

Wastewater treatment creates clean water. This clean water is safe for people to drink,. and it can be safely used to water plants. 

• scientific advancements

Wastewater treatments teaches us more and more about recycling and treating our resources. 

• precious resources

Despite the world being made up of 75% water, only 3% of water is drinkable. Wastewater treatment gives us more of a necessary resource. 

• cost 

With more drinkable water available by using wastewater, we can reduce the cost of water. 

Treatment Process

Water treatment centers mimic how water in natural environments are purified, but they speed up the process and can get ti done in just seven hours and five treatments. The five treatments are:

• preliminary treatment
• primary treatment
• secondary treatment
• disinfection
• sludge treatment

Up to 95% of contaminants are removed during the primary and secondary treatments. After that, it is disinfected and introduced into the regular water system. The remaining material is known as sludge, and it is distributed as fertilizer to farms or properly disposed.