Eli5: Why do we use clean, potable water in toilets?
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What are the other practical options? Should the water company install a separate water line to every home, just to provide dirty, non-potable water? And then every house would have to have additional water lines to each toilet, just to fill them with non-potable water?
The simple answer is: Potable water in toilets is the easiest solution. However, there are people/places/homes that do things a bit differently, like using wastewater from sinks to (at least partially) fill toilets, or even rain-collection cisterns that collect and supply water for toilets. And such things are going to become even more common, in the future, as we continue to overuse supplies of clean water and it becomes less-readily available.
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