Recycled water for drinking should be considered for Sydney, new strategy finds

The new report says only 7% of wastewater in greater Sydney is currently reused and urges the adoption of recycled water for drinking. Photograph: Grace Cary/Getty Images

A new water strategy for the Sydney basin says the New South Wales government needs to look urgently at investing in alternative sources of water, including more desalination plants and large-scale recycling of wastewater.

But the state’s minister for water, Kevin Anderson, skirted around the most contentious part of the report: the consideration of large-scale recycling into the drinking-water system.