Should we use ocean water to flush toilets, to save fresh water? by @scottharrison
Answer by Scott Harrison:
More than 97% of all the water on earth is in the oceans, so finding new usage for salt water has huge potential. But right now, salt water doesn’t work for our household use. First, it would probably corrode the metal pipes and fixtures in toilet. And, second, our sewage treatment facilities can’t handle salty water. It’ll take a lot of innovation and investment to re-engineer our homes and businesses to work on salt water, and that’s probably a long way off.
Additionally, toilets only use a tiny percentage of fresh water consumed by humans. In fact, agriculture accounts for almost 85% of fresh water use and industry accounts for an additional 12%. So, when we’re looking at water conservation, there’s a lot more opportunity for improvement in those sectors than in domestic use.