Do the Australian guidelines for water recycling protect small or remote communities?

While there are as yet no direct drinking water reuse projects in Australia, there are many valuable aspects of such systems that may be particularly useful in small communities. The Australian Guidelines for Water Recycling  - Augmentation of Drinking Water Supplies report a 9.5 log10 reduction value of enteric viruses for direct drinking water use, based on virus concentrations from a large municipal sewage treatment plant.

Small or remote communities, which are not specifically discussed in the Guidelines are unique in both the high degree of interaction between community members and the resulting increased risk of disease transmission. For this reson a quantitative microbial risk assessment was conducted to determine the level of treatment required to meet the tolerable annual disease burden for a small community, using Davis Station in Antarctica as a case study.