The word "wastewater" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to water that has been used and is no longer suitable for use without treatment. For example, "The wastewater from our factories has been polluting our local river for years."
Water companies have to treat wastewater before it can reach natural waters and there is no evidence (from extensive studies) that oestrogens are present in tap water.
Tampons and pads make up 10% of things flushed down toilets, a fact that makes wastewater workers despair, as well as beach cleaners: in a 2010 Beachwatch survey, for every kilometre of beach, 22.5 towels, panty liners or backing strips were found, and 8.9 tampon applicators.
The charter, therefore, provides a vision: that governments ensure the basic needs of citizens are met, thereby eliminating inequality and discrimination towards the achievement of safe water, sanitation and wastewater services for everyone.
In November, the city of San Diego moved ahead on a $2.5bn plan to recycle 83m gallons of wastewater a day for drinking by 2035, about one-third of the city's supply.
Feeding into five or so holes drilled into the wide concrete tube, families link their wastewater pipes together like a web, sometimes with unpleasant results.
The report stated the wastewater discharge is potentially impairing the reproduction of sensitive invertebrate and algal species, including a species of water flea and freshwater green algae.
However, the global trends are worrying in other areas like fisheries, wastewater treatment and air quality.
Already she has to be able to switch from discussing with one group of her colleagues the complexities of binding materials to cancer cells, to debating with others how to clean up industrial wastewater with genetically engineered yeasts (her work is not confined to tinkering with the DNA of viruses).
The day that USAID officials cancelled the meeting, the World Bank awarded $13m for wastewater projects and America's secretary of state, John Kerry, hosted a banquet for businessmen to drum up cash for a scheme for investment in Palestine.
And at Coca-Cola bottling plants from Bogotá to Beijing, schools of fish swim in water tanks filled with treated wastewater, testament to the firm's commitment to clean all its wastewater by 2010 (it is 84% of the way there).Cynics say such programmes are mere public relations.
These include Freiburg's Industrial Solar, which provides heat used in manufacturing processes and air-conditioning to industrial facilities; Dresden's UroTiss, which makes artificial tissues for urinary organs; and Kiel's Terrawater, which processes sea- and wastewater.
