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I'd like to see more discussion of keeping this safe from pathogens; the article includes a handful of throwaway lines like "keeping bacterial loads to an acceptable level under WHO guidelines" and "let the untreated sewage water sit in primary and secondary ponds before mixing it into fish ponds, effectively killing harmful pathogens and allowing large solids to sediment", but I'd like a little stronger explanation for why this okay when we're talking about intermingling human waste with food supply, which I'm given to understand is avoided for very good reasons most of the time. How is this not begging for an E Coli breakout?


As I understand it, chlorine and heat treatment are how pathogens are killed in waste-water treatment plants. E.g., https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Book%3A_...

If you're ever in Boston, the Deer Island Treatment Plant offers tours and they're fascinating. (The odour is only challenging for a brief part of the tour)




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