It looks like a normal glass of water. It’s clear, cold and tasteless. But just a few hours ago, it was raw sewage.

That water is the end product of a process and technology known as water recycling, or direct potable reuse.

In the Western U.S., there’s more demand for water than there is supply, particularly in the Colorado River basin. While the region’s policy makers are mired in standoff about how to fix that imbalance at a broad level, cities with finite water supplies are finding creative new ways to stretch out the water they already have. In some places, that means cleaning up sewage and putting it right back in the pipes that flow to homes and businesses.