Why is keeping tap water turned on considered wastage?

[matrixone]

I have seen many answers to this questions on Quora, But all these talks about the process behind creating the "usable" water.

• In my hometown I remember people boiling rain water to get drinking water, And using rain water (stored in well) for other purposes. In that scenario ? Isn't it harmless to waste water ?
• One of the answers mentions that once you waste the water, it goes to all the sewages, and other channels and gets polluted and becomes unusable. My question is, why cant we use rain water or filtered sea water (which is available plenty) and use that instead of trying to filter the water that got wasted ?

To summarise, I believe if we use sea water, and rain water properly we don't have to worry about "wastage of water".

 

[DaveE]

1) Some places it doesn't rain much.
2) Seawater is unpleasant to drink, and it's very expensive to fix that.

 

[BillTre]

The processing of seawater to make it suitable for drinking is a technical, costs money, and will need maintenance. These are reasons not to waste it.

I have lived in Hawaii for a bit and used captured and filtered rainwater for drinking.
This is a limited resource for people to use. They have to collect the water, store it, and maintain the equipment. All reasons to not overuse.

In some places disposing of outflow (sewage) has a charge to. Another reason to not overuse.

 

[Rive]

Tap water (by modern standards) is not always easy to produce and it takes effort and cost to produce/deliver.
To reduce cost, the starting point is often some 'clean' water source (deep wells, limestone layers, springs) which are not always renewable resources => better use them sparingly.

Part of a discussion/source:

Groundwater pumping by Baton Rouge, Louisiana, increased more than tenfold between the 1930s and 1970, resulting in groundwater-level declines of approximately 200 feet.
In the Houston, Texas, area, extensive groundwater pumping to support economic and population growth has caused water-level declines of approximately 400 feet ...

Alternative sources will not be so cheap.

I remember people boiling rain water to get drinking water,

By modern standards/times, rainwater (especially if collected) is not fit for drinking: and boiling is just not sufficient.

why cant we use rain water or filtered sea water (which is available plenty) and use that instead of trying to filter the water that got wasted ?

We can.
Usually picking a suitable water source is a complex question.

once you waste the water, it goes to all the sewages, and other channels and gets polluted and becomes unusable.

That's not true. There are ways to treat that water, at least up to the level where it can be safely dispose into surface waters (which can be then used as water source). But again, it has a cost and takes effort.

 

[Baluncore]

To summarise, I believe if we use sea water, and rain water properly we don't have to worry about "wastage of water".

You are not wasting the water, you are wasting the cost of purifying and delivering clean potable water. Potable water is a controlled industrial product.

The health of the nation is dependent on the provision of potable water, and keeping it separate from sewage. Your health is dependent on the health of your community, on the control of infectious pathogens and pollution. The cost of clean water is often subsidised to the part of the population that is the least able to pay the cost. That is to protect you and the nation.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were.
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Rainwater is not clean, it contains atmospheric pollutants. As an example, the tetra-ethyl-lead in gasoline went everywhere, including into the brains of young children. There is no quality control or monitoring of rainwater that is used locally by residents.

It requires significantly less money and energy to clean river water, than it does to desalinate seawater. Most towns and cities are built on rivers, not on the coastline. Those on the coastline are invariably built where a river enters the sea. Desalination of seawater can only be justified where dirty river-water is not available as a feedstock, and there is an abundance of energy.

You may have too much money, and think you can afford to waste the nation's water assets now, but that does not mean you will not be paying more for it, with your or someone else's health and life, now and in the future.

 

[gmax137]

Where I live the average annual rainfall is about 8 inches = 20 cm. Last year we had 1.5 inches = 4 cm. When I lived in the Eastern US, we could get 7 inches in an afternoon. "Wasteful" depends on where you are.

 

[sophiecentaur]

"Wasteful" depends on where you are.

That's a bit oversimplified. Disposing of waste water is also expensive and that problem is not addressed properly in many countries. In UK we have plenty of rain but land drainage shares much of the foul water drainage system. This means that above average rainfall can result in untreated foul waste water ending up in rivers and the sea. Yuck!!
It's a major political topic in UK. Not enough has been spent on our drainage and water storage since Victorian times. It's particularly annoying when you think we have 'plenty' of rain over the year. The water companies have been issuing high dividends to their shareholders for years instead of upgrading the systems.
We have to hope that the next pandemic doesn't spread via sewage.

 

[Mark44]

My question is, why cant we use rain water or filtered sea water (which is available plenty) and use that instead of trying to filter the water that got wasted ?

Rain water has already been discussed. Regarding sea water, an ordinary filter doesn't work to filter out the salt that is dissolved in the water. Filters can remove particles from water of a certain size or larger, but not compounds that are dissolved in it.

Instead, some of the possible ways are distillation of sea water, electrodialysis, or reverse osmosis.

 

[Nik_2213]

Initial rainfall in cities is probably unfit to drink as-is. We may have got rid of leaded petrol and coal fires, but other toxic muck will come down in rain, wash off roofs, gutters and down-pipes.

Sorry, I've forgotten the old 'rule of thumb' for how much steady rain is needed to 'clear the air' and 'run clean'.
--
Don't forget that sea water is not just 'dilute brine', as drawn from salt wells, but a soup of 'organics' from viruses to the size of intake screen's mesh, plus colloids, sediment etc. Progressive 'Blinding' of filters and desalination membranes is a 'given' and systems must be engineered to cope.

FWIW, Liverpool and West Lancashire coast spent decades and many millions building deep interceptor sewers to upgrade the old Victorian systems, taking the foul stew to treatment plants, especially during high run-off conditions that would have again over-whelmed the old systems, over-flowed into coastal waters, floated ghastly detritus onto local beaches ...
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/docum...&doi=1de0c5ffe254d4635e1e7650a7b62a17835c6ef7

IIRC, part of London is also building such a system, which will not be completed for another decade...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Tideway_Scheme

IIRC, as SE UK is subsiding due to secondary post-glacial iso-stasis, TTS also must design for that as well as sea-level rise. L+WL are on the 'neutral' hinge-line between Scotland's rebound and SE's subsidence. Upside, we only have to contend with sea-level rise eating long, soft coast. Down-side, the many 'minor' faults crossing area are 'wrung' and 'wriggle', especially if gas extraction attempts 'frack' them...

 

[hmmm27]

"Why is keeping tap water turned on considered wasteage ?"

If you live by a stream and draw enough water for your own needs, then that - and the water that flows past - is not wasted.

If you take more than you need, treat the draw, and then throw excess treated water out, the work required for treatment, and thus the excess potable water, is wasted.

Not complicated.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Victorian times

Ayes, orphans in the workhouses and cholera in the tapwater. Happy times!

Today the island of Majuro gets all it's water from rainwater. It is expensive, nasty, and depending on the weather can get scarce. And that's a tropical island* in the middle of the Pacific. And did I mention nasty?

It's also worth pointing out that collecting rainwater in barrels, like they did in the Good Ol' Days provides a breeding ground for mosquitos. So you can add malaria and West Nile to the list of...um...benefits.

The modern water distribution system is not perfect, but the people who designed it were not idiots.

* Technically, it's an atoll.

 

[BillTre]

It's also worth pointing out that collecting rainwater in barrels, like they did in the Good Ol' Days provides a breeding ground for mosquitos. So you can add malaria and West Nile to the list of...um...benefits.

Easily solved with covers on the water containers.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Easily solved with covers on the water containers.

Easily solved with a reasonable level of basic education and some decent infrastructure. They don't come cheap and you can't really say there are any 'easy' measures without some input from us rich boys.

 

[DaveC426913]

To summarise, I believe if we use sea water, and rain water properly we don't have to worry about "wastage of water".

This seems pretty simplistic to me, as it does to others.

Potable water is not in unending supply. To make any water potable for human consumption, it needs to be processed. That costs money and resources. If we are pouring it down the drain, not only are we wasting the expenses used to make it potable for us, but we are squandering a resource that could otherwise be suppyling less fortunate parts of the world where there is not enough fresh water.

I live in Canada. We have more freshwater lakes - and more fresh water - than anywhere else in the world. And yet ... and yet ... we have communities that have been under "boil water" mandates for decades.

Gives whole new meaning to the Coleridge line "water water everywhere nor any drop to drink".

 

[russ_watters]

Thread closed pending moderation.

A bunch of off topic posts have been removed and one moved to forum feedback. Thread reopened. Let's stay focused on the OP's question please.

 

[hmmm27]

I'm not sure there's much more to say, unless the OP decides to be more specific about their circumstance. [edit: okay, maybe]

Obviously - in a locale where rain provides enough water for household use - letting untreated rainwater flow into the ground is not "wasteful", at least not in the sense of the "don't keep the taps running for no reason" missives.

 

[hmmm27]

Further on the OP :

Rainwater could be used in flush toilets, and - lightly or even untreated - for non-potable uses. You'd probably want to toss a capful of disinfectant in every once in a while to keep mould/algae from growing.

But, using what's pretty much the purest naturally available water to transport sh*t and p*ss to a treatment plant just seems wrong.

Saltwater is not a good idea under most circumstances : not only does it require its own pipes to get to the buildings, but then the wastewater treatment byproducts can't be used as fertilizer.

 

[Frabjous]

I’m reminded of the tragedy of the commons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

 

[Bystander]

I’m reminded of the tragedy of the commons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

..., vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riparian_water_rights ; oh, wow...?

 

[Frabjous]

..., vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riparian_water_rights ; oh, wow...?

Water rights are complicated. In many places water is subsidized, so it is not worth the cost to conserve.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Saltwater is not a good idea

Worse, in fact; it's a very bad idea. It is bad for the soil. I heard a firefighter being interviewed (BBC Radio iirc) who said that they avoid dropping saltwater on wildfires because the longterm results can be worse than the destruction of forests by fire.
It's the sodium. When we had a water softener installed, the instructions were to not use softened water for irrigation because it would kill plants.

 

[DrDu]

Where I live, tap water has the quality of mineral water. I remember only one time that a small ammount of clorine had to be added. Nevertheless it is not available in arbitrary quantities as it comes from some deep lying aquifers. Do I want it to be replaced for some recycled wastewater because some people think they can let the tap water run forever? Certainly not!

 

[DrDu]

Btw, I just returned from Spain. Sweetwater is one of the most precious resourches worldwide. In Spain they had hardly any rain there for the last two years. Sweetwater is not only used for households but also in farming. Spain is one of the largest producers of red fruit in Europe although strawberries need an immense ammount of water to grow, see https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...r-plan-raises-fears-for-spanish-wetlands.This has led to the situation that famous natural reserves like the La Doñana wetlands near the delta of the Guadalquivir river have dried out completely this year. Most artificial lakes to hold back the water of the rivers are nearly empty, too. While Spain may be healthy enough to be able to produce drinking water from sea water if necessary, the situation in other parts of the world are even more problematic.
I have been working for some years in epidemiology. One interesting topic in conferences was the effect of arsenic in drinking water. Especially for the poorest countries like Bangladesh this is an immense problem, as in rural areas, there is no centralized water supply but people get water from small wells and don't have the possibility to filter arsenic out of the drinking water.
See for example:
https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H026516.pdf

 

[DaveC426913]

Sweetwater is one of the most precious resourches worldwide.

AKA fresh water.
I have never heard this expression before.

 

[phyzguy]

In Spanish, fresh water is "agua dulce", which literally translates to "sweet water".

 

[hmmm27]

AKA fresh water.
I have never heard this expression before.

I have : can't remember the context, though. US origin, probably : sounds like a marketing campaign

 

[BillTre]

AKA fresh water.
I have never heard this expression before.

Is used by aquaculture to mean water good for fish growing.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

You are not wasting the water, you are wasting the cost of purifying and delivering clean potable water. Potable water is a controlled industrial product.

The processing can go both ways too. If it ends up in a drain/sewer then it will likely be sent to a water processing plant.

 

[BillTre]

Where I live, sewer fees for large facilities are based on a calculation of the clean water supplied.
Sewage flows are not metered at each user site.
So even if you are not feeding water back into the sewer lines (by maybe watering plants, evaporating water, or making cement) you will still get charged a larger sewer fee.
Also wasteful of money.

 

[DrDu]

I have : can't remember the context, though. US origin, probably : sounds like a marketing campaign

Well, If you want to pay me for this campaign, feel free! But it was rather a false friend, in German, like in Spanish, fresh water is "Süßwasser" which directly translates as sweet water.

 

[hmmm27]

The phrase/word seems to turn up in all/most Romance languages. But, I doubt it actually means "sugar laden", rather "pleasant".

It might be a comparison to alkaline water, which reportedly tastes bitter.

 

[weirdoguy]

It might be a comparison to alkaline water, which reportedly tastes bitter.

In polish we also use "sweet water" but it's compared with "salt water" like in Baltic Sea. Funny enough, I've never thought (even as a child, at least I don't remember) about the name "sweet water" as literally meaning sweet water. I guess the context made it always clear.

 

[Nik_2213]

Was it Hong Kong where several districts had a 'parallel' supply of non-potable water for eg sewage flushing ?

Also, lessons from eg 'Cruise Ships', which necessarily get through a lot of fresh water. They cannot carry enough in tanks for route, often not enough for even portions of route. So, they make their own. Desalination is complex and energy intensive. Sea-water also has the 'organics' to 'blind' filters, membranes etc. IIRC, many modern cruise-ships use much of waste heat from engines to pre-heat then boil sea-water for distillation. It is a 'juggling act', as this needs the main engines run, so only available when travelling between ports. Auxiliary systems and 'buffer' tankage must suffice when in port or anchored...

 

[GStark]

By letting tap water run you are turning freshwater into grey water (water drained from sinks, basins, showers, tubs, washers...) which needs to be treated, resevoired, oxygenated or the like to become tasty potable tap water for you to waste again.

It is a Bad Idea!

[Post edited by a Mentor]