Water shortages throughout Australia mean that governments are inevitably considering the option of recycling. I’ll take mine with a slice of lime.

The Brisbane Times reports that drinking recycled sewage has moved a step closer with the drafting of what are said to be the world’s first national guidelines to establish standards for recycled water quality.

The draft guidelines published yesterday by the National Health and Medical Research Council provide a crucial advance in the development of recycling, water industry executives say.

Extracting potable water from sewage required the removal of harmful parasites such as cryptosporidium and pathogenic bacteria and viruses, thousands of which were present in just one litre of sewage.

The draft guidelines recommend that water with a "tolerable risk", using World Health Organisation standards, should be that posing an annual risk of one case of diarrhoea per 1000 people.

I hope I’m not the one.