Water, water, everywhere

The city I live in is currently in the process of constructing a desalination plant to ensure future water supplies. The government have decided not to build a water recycling plant (which is much more energy efficient) because... the public won't accept drinking recycled sewage (or more to the point, enough marginal voters won't). I have only two problems with this. Firstly, the public are apparently idiots; and secondly, the government are apparently idiots.

Where do people think their water comes from now? There's a limited amount of it on the planet, and it gets recycled over and over again. Everywhere it's liquid (and sometimes when it's not), things live in it, crap in it, reproduce in it and die in it. We collect it by having rain fall on dirt and run off, and we store it in a big open-air reservoir. The water company has standards on what's allowed in it, and they have to treat the water supply to get it to meet those standards. It all comes from the same place eventually; only the treatment paths differ.

The government's job in these circumstances is to realize that recycling is the correct choice. It costs less energy and emits less pollution; so it costs less money. It is just as good as current water supplies; it can be made better if necessary, and still be cheaper than desalination. Instead of throwing up its hands, the government should be educating people on why it's a good idea, and getting on with it. People can learn. Civilizations that don't learn, make way for those that do.