Communities throughout the world discharge treated (and untreated) wastewater to rivers and streams.  Many communities downstream then use the river as their drinking water supply.

We All Live Downstream

Some Local Examples

• Dalby takes it's water from the Condamine River which is where Toowoomba currently pumps it's treated effluent.
• Effluent from Blackbutt flows into Brisbane River
• Yarraman effluent flows into Cooyar Creek for extraction for Nanango
• Cherbourg extracts its water supply from Barambah Creek, downstream of the same then discharges effluent upstream of Murgon who in turn discharge their effluent upstream of Wondai.
• Kingaroy discharges effluent into Kingaroy Creek which flows into the Stuart River which is dammed at Gordonbrook and then pumped back to Kingaroy.

Other National Examples

• Canberra » Wagga Wagga » Griffith » Hay » Balranald » Murray Bridge and Adelaide
• Penrith effluent flows into the Nepean River which is picked up by Richmond

International Examples

• London uses water from the Thames River, which has 360 wastewater treatment plants discharging to it upstream.  
• New York city gets their drinking water from the Catskills Mountains, where there are numerous wastewater discharges.

There are also quite a few communities who plan their indirect potable reuse, find out who they are.