Australians are wasting billions of litres of water that could be recycled and alleviate the worst drought on record.

Despite living on the driest continent on Earth, we discharge enough sewage into the sea to fill Sydney Harbour two and half times each year.

Almost all of that could be treated and re-used to flush toilets, water gardens and even drink - but most of our major cities recycle less than 10 per cent of wastewater.

As the crippling drought devastates farms and leaves some regional towns just weeks from running dry, experts are crying out for a change to our wasteful ways.

Despite living on the driest continent on Earth, we discharge enough sewage into the sea to fill Sydney Harbour (pictured) two and half times each year

Australia wastes billions of litres of water that could be recycled amid the worst drought on record. Pictured: Sewage pipes polluting the sea

'With rainfall far less frequent we've got to make the maximum use of all the water that we already have,' Professor Greg Leslie, Director of the UNSW Global Water Institute, told Daily Mail Australia.

'Our philosophy should be to use every drop to its fullest extent and that means recycling much better.'

In most states the little water that is recycled is used for non-drinking purposes such as watering parks and crops, using in factories and fighting fires.

The Sydney area has 14 treatment plants that make water re-useable.

For example, the Wollongong plant recycles water for industrial use by Blue Scope Steel, the Rouse Hill plant delivers non-drinking water to new houses and the St Mary's plant puts treated water back into the Clarence River system.

Melbourne has two recycling plants while Adelaide sends wastewater from its largest treatment plant north of the city to irrigate gardens and vineyards.

These schemes are commendable - but as our dams run dry and the earth cracks beneath our farmers' feet, they are simply not enough.

The Wollongong water treatment plant (pictured) recycles water for industrial use by Blue Scope Steel

Farmers have been crippled as they are forced expensively to truck in water to keep their livestock and crops alive. Pictured: Warilalda farmer Elizabeth Hollow (left), gets a hug from her twin sister Catherine on her drought-stricken land

'The amount that we recycle compared to what we use is very small,' UNSW Professor Stuart Khan told Daily Mail Australia.

The best way to meaningfully change this is to treat wastewater to a standard that makes it drinkable again, he said.

'If we want to make a difference we should have all options on the table. We should be looking to produce high quality drinking water.

'It's technically viable, we just have to find a way to get politicians to take action.'

Professor Leslie agreed, saying recycling water for drinking is the most sensible path to take.

'The economics favour putting recycled water back into the overall water supply because we already have the plumbing and sewage infrastructure in place,' he said.

Recycling water for drinking is already done in Namibia, South Africa and the US but the only Australian city that currently follows suit is Perth.

The city's Groundwater Replenishment Scheme treats wastewater at an advanced recycling plant and returns it to underground bores from where water is drawn.

It is simply unacceptable that most people are flushing drinking water down the toilet Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore

The scale is currently small but the project aims to recycle 45 per cent of Perth's wastewater by 2030.

'This scheme is hugely important because it shows Australia the way forward,' said Professor Khan.

Brisbane is also moving towards recycling water for drinking.

During the millennium drought in the mid-2000s, the city constructed the $2.7billion Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme.

The plan involves taking wastewater from six plants, treating it further and pumping it back into the region's largest surface water reservoir, Lake Wivenhoe.

However, officials decided the scheme would not be used unless dam levels drop below 40 per cent meaning it has never been tested.

Meanwhile, Sydney and Melbourne have no plans in place to recycle water for drinking.

Two main obstacles stand in the way, according to the experts. One is the time and money required update our recycling plants to make such water potable.

Perth's Groundwater Replenishment Scheme (pictured) treats wastewater at an advanced recycling plant and returns it to underground bores from where water is drawn

Frost covers the empty Little Llangothlin lagoon near the NSW town of Guyra. The lagoon is part of a string of protected wetlands, internationally recognized for their rarity and importance as a refuge for migrating birdlife. The region has been suffering through a period of intense drought, with the lagoons now empty

'None of our current plants in Sydney have the ability to make water drinking standard again so we have a fair way to go in terms of building the infrastructure,' said Professor Khan.

But in the long term, recycling water works out cheaper than other measures used in times of drought.

'Recycling is twice as cheap as pumping water from the Shoalhaven River and desalination, both of which are energy intensive and bad for the environment,' said Professor Leslie.

This could mean that people's water bills come down.

The second issue is community acceptance. Water recycled for drinking has to be rigorously treated to reach a level set by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, meaning it is perfectly safe to drink.

Poll Would you support drinking purified recycled water? Yes No Only as a back-up Undecided Would you support drinking purified recycled water? Yes 87 votes

No 27 votes

Only as a back-up 23 votes

Undecided 2 votes Now share your opinion





But still the so-called 'yuck factor' persists: people don't like the idea of drinking water that has once been in a toilet and flowed through the sewers.

In 2006 when dam levels reached eight per cent, officials in the Queensland city of Toowoomba wanted to build a water recycling scheme.

But there was a referendum on the issue and the no campaign with the slogan 'Citizens Against Drinking Sewage' won with a 62 per cent majority and the idea was scrapped.

Experts acknowledge that people's unwillingness to drink recycled water - although irrational - is a big challenge to overcome.

A report on water re-use released by UNSW this year says: 'People have instinctive and emotional responses to human excrement and sewage.

'Such responses can create mental barriers to the acceptance of recycled water for drinking.'

The way to overcome this, according to the World Health Organisation, is to 'gain public confidence and trust through a productive, two-way engagement process.'

And there is reason to hope that more Australians would be willing to back recycling water for drinking.

In Brisbane in 2008, 54 per cent said they supported the addition of recycled water to the drinking water supply and an additional 28 per cent said they supported the scheme as a back-up measure in dry times.

But even if Melburnians and Sydneysiders do not accept recycling water for drinking, more can still be done.

Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore is on a crusade to make sure new buildings are built with a dual piping system to use recycled water for non-drinking purposes.

Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore (pictured) wants the city to recycle more water

The City of Sydney has recently built one of Australia's largest urban storm-water recycling facilities in Green Square. Pictured: The Green Square recycling plant

'More than 90 per cent of NSW is in drought, so it is simply unacceptable that most people are flushing drinking water down the toilet,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'We should be doing everything we can to reduce our reliance on drinking water and recycle water to wash our clothes and water plants and gardens.'

She said that more than half of an average household's water needs could be met with recycled water.

The City of Sydney has recently built one of Australia's largest urban storm-water recycling facilities in Green Square.

How good is each state capital at recycling water? Adelaide has a very big agricultural irrigation scheme, known as the 'Bolivar Scheme'. It sends most of its wastewater from its largest treatment plant north to irrigate market gardens and vineyards. It's always been the leading city in Australia for reuse, due primarily to this very large scheme. Perth now has the Groundwater Replenishment Scheme which puts recycled water back into the drinking supply. At the moment the scheme is not big but it aims to recycle 45 per cent of wastewater by 2030. Brisbane in 2010 designed the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme to recycle almost all of its water. It has not been needed but if stores drop below 40 per cent it could be recommissioned, meaning the city will be able to recycle the vast majority of the wastewater it produces. Canberra pumps most of its wastewater into the Molonglo River which flows into the Murray River. It is not recycled in Canberra but used by towns downstream such as Adelaide. Sydney has some important recycling schemes but they account for less than 10 per cent of waste water. The same goes for Melbourne, Hobart and Darwin. Source: Professor Stuart Khan, UNSW Advertisement

The $8million facility treats up to 900,000 litres every day and pumps it to local buildings and parks.

The next stage of the project is to treat wastewater and deliver it back to homes for non-drinking use.

But the plan is on hold because water recycling operators say it is currently too expensive for them to get involved.

This is because government rules introduced last year allow Sydney Water to bill the companies for discharging waste from the recycled water into the sewers.

The Lord Mayor is campaigning to change this rule to make recycling water more profitable and desirable.

The state government, however, says the rules are fair because Sydney Water needs the money to make sure it does not have to put up prices in out-of-town areas that are harder to serve.

New South Wales Water Minister Melinda Pavey said: 'The challenge is the tension between keeping water prices down for ratepayers across the whole of Sydney and the Illawarra, and encouraging further recycling'.

While the Lord Mayor's campaign is admirable, there is some doubt as to how effective it will be in terms of conserving our overall water supplies.

'Building houses with dual piping systems that provide recycled water to flush loos is a niche solution and has a small impact,' said Professor Khan.

'The vast majority of our waste water comes from homes that already exist which aren't built to use recycled water.

'We have to look at the bigger picture and in my view we need to put recycled water back into the drinking supply.'

Other countries have shown that recycling water on a large scale is possible. Israel, for example, re-uses 90 per cent of its wasterwater, mostly for irrigation.

However, recycling water is not likely to solve the problem on its own.

Last week the Labor opposition slammed the government for failing to build any new dams despite promising to do so before coming to power in 2015.

Western New South Wales has not had a new dam since 1987 and national dam storage has increased by only three per cent since 1990.

During that time, our population has soared from 17million to 25million, meaning storage levels per person are declining.

A sheep weak with hunger on a severely drought affected farm in Coonabarabran, NSW

Labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said: 'For six years the government has been promising dams here, dams there, dams everywhere. But the last federal government to build a dam was a Labor government.'

Federal Water Resources Minister David Littleproud said the federal government has offered $1.3bn for new infrastructure projects but state governments are too reluctant to build dams due to cost and environmental issues.

'They're just not keeping up with their growing populations,' he told The Australian.

But Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville hit back, saying there was no point building new dams because there is very rarely enough rain to fill them.

'The dams we have already are in the best places to collect a high yield of water - any new dams would be unlikely to capture enough water to be worth it,' she told the newspaper.

'For Minister Littleproud to suggest otherwise demonstrates a complete lack of understanding when it comes to water and climate change, especially in Victoria.'

Ms Neville pointed out that Victoria's Thomson Dam has only filled three times since it was built in 1984, most recently in 1996.

She said a better alternative is to expand the state's desalination plant even though this would increase water bills by at least $10 per household because desalination uses lots of electricity.

In other states, however, new dams are on the table.

A view of Warragamba Dam, which is Sydney's biggest dam, shows how levels have sunk around 50 per cent

One proposal is to raise the walls of the Wyangala dam in central west New South Wales by 10 metres at a cost of $650million.

Another is to build a dam on the Maryland River near the Queensland-New South Wales border.

But critics say there is not enough water in the rivers there and the scheme would harm local wildlife.

What is clear is that something must be done to stop Australia running dry.

Farmers have been crippled as they are forced to expensively truck in water to keep their livestock and crops alive.

The town of Stanthorpe in southern Queensland is just weeks from running out of water and charities are delivering it just to keep children brushing their teeth.

Religious leaders have even resorted to holding 'pray for rain' services. Whether they will bring enough rainfall to end the devastating drought remains to be seen.