innovations
Given the strategic
importance of ‘New Water’
as a critical element in driving
inclusive economic growth,
consideration could be given
by the government to create
a water board at national
level, responsible only for
New Water.
transparent trial lasting almost a
decade, during which the process was
repeatedly explained to laypersons
by credible experts, and extensive
feedback sessions yielded questions
of concern that were systemically dealt
with in a credible way.
In Windhoek, Namibia, the
technology used to recover water from
waste was developed by the CSIR in
the 1980s. It also yields high-quality
water from sewage. This has allowed a
series of scientific tests over decades
that have cumulatively demonstrated
the safety thereof, particularly from a
pathological load perspective.
In Israel, all wastewater is treated,
often using engineered wetlands,
with bacterial processes occurring
in the root systems of plants that
naturally occur in marshes. These
remove all harmful nutrients and
pathogens. Again, the body of
scientific knowledge that has been
accumulated is robust and clearly
demonstrates the safety.
From a purely technical perspective,
the recovery of high-quality water from
About the author
Dr Anthony Turton is a trained
scientist specialising in water
resource management as a
strategic issue, with a robust
publication record, contributing
regularly across all media platforms.
Water Sewage & Effluent May/June 2018
37
launched by the presidency. This was
centred on the branding of water
recovered from waste as ‘New Water’.
The President and other political
leaders were seen drinking New
Water at public events to legitimise
the practice.
When Ronnie Kasrils was Minister of
Water, he did the same when the Durban
South wastewater works became the
first in South Africa to create industrial
process water from waste. This shows
that it can be done by credible leadership
and smart branding.
In Perth, there is a large water
recovery initiative at the Beenyup
wastewater treatment plant, which
recovers 120mℓ/d (million litres per
day). Instead of reusing this directly, it
is pumped into the confined Leederville
aquifer. This banks the recovered
water for 25 years, but it also makes
water instantly available from different
parts of the same aquifer. This water
is blended with conventional surface
water and delivered to consumers via
the existing reticulation system. Public
perception was managed through a
Close-up of a Second Generation Vertical Upflow Modular Engineered Wetland System (VUF-MEWS) patented
in South Africa and showing the cell density. This gives a lot of processing power in small footprint.