well something like 20 million people drink from the Thames, but cost is the main thing about, and lime if you have lots of industry. One reason the west midlands water supply was sourced from those lovely people in wales is its soft, and lyme was bad for the industrial machines, theres only so much groundwater you can economically take and then its a toss up if its drinkable. I'd feel hard done by having to shower in London water, let alone drink it ! Its also rammed full of oestrogen from soya and recycling, there are fish by water treatment plants that actually change sex due to the levels of oestrogen.
True, didn't even think about that.
Still think that for a individual the set up costs, running costs, time land and resources required make it a unrealistic option.
You seem to have interpreted the OP differently from the way I did. I took it to mean that the owner of the firm in question is trying to get his employee to defraud the water supplier by claiming that the business water supply is in fact a private supply, which would be cheaper than a (metered) business supply and so save the business some money.
Which of us has it right?
No idea, i understood that by saying:
tapping into a works water source
He was being asked to get his own metered supply instead.
I think that should have been option 4. Or possibly 1.
In the UK it could almost certainly cover all your drinking water needs. It's odd that rain water isn't used more, I suppose it's harder work.
When out and about I routinely collect it from a tarp, sometimes directly into my mug, boil it and drink it. I like to let the rain flush the tarp a bit first, but even if there's a bit of bird cr@p on there, boiling it is enough for me.
I'd have thought you could easily collect it from a roof, filter it through a barrel of gravel and then if required use a more technical filter.
Not sure if that's feasible long term.
What does the average household consume?
What with toilet flushing, bathing/showers, pot washing and food prep, drinking water, house cleaning, garden watering, i think it's something like 300 litres per day.
Sounds a lot but the average toilet flushes something like 8 litres on each flush.
8 times a day that's 64 litres just on toilet flushing.
Unless you severely rationed water or had a huuuggggeeeeeeeee catchment area (like a reservoir) i can't see rain providing enough.
Plus you'd need pretty vast storage tanks to get you through the dry summer months.
Plus it'd still need treating and/or filtering.
If i remember rightly British Red has a pretty effective rain catchment and storage system be interesting to hear straight from a reliable source how much rain water he captures.
