Survival: Making water drinkable

[JD Spydo]

First of all I want to thank all of you who contributed to my Survival/Firemaking thread. It turned out to be very interesting as well as informative and I really enjoyed all the input it received.

I want to move on to a subject that I believe is paramount in any survival situation and that is having a safe, drinkable water supply. There are many methods to making water drinkable and some are more practical than others.

In a survival situation the last thing you would want to do would be to drink any tainted water. One of your biggest problems are water borne pathogens and/or parasites. Some of them like giardia and cryptosporidium are potentially lethal. I've heard that in order to kill most living organisms in water you must boil it for at least 10 solid minutes.

Also in today's industrial age there are pollution factors that must be dealt with as well. There are also distinctions between water filtering and water purification. There are some safe chemical treatments that have hit the survival market like oxygen tablets, iodine release agents and activated charcoal that I've heard of people using with success.

So tell me what all would you do to make water drinkable in a tense survival situation? I hope to hear Zenheretic chime in on this one as I know he has extensive knowledge in chemistry.

[tkdman41]

Whenever I'm outdoors I cary my water purification kit which includes Polar Pure. That stuff is by far the best iodine treatment I've found and it lasts longer than any other. Its a bottle filled with iodine crystals that you fill with water to make a solution that can then be used to purify your water supply. If i'm not mistaken a bottle of polar pure will make 2000 quarts of drinkable water. I also have a pump filter that screws on a nalgene but only take it on long canoeing trips because its heavy and takes someone with free time to use.

[cyberspyder]

Whenever I'm outdoors I cary my water purification kit which includes Polar Pure. That stuff is by far the best iodine treatment I've found and it lasts longer than any other. Its a bottle filled with iodine crystals that you fill with water to make a solution that can then be used to purify your water supply. If i'm not mistaken a bottle of polar pure will make 2000 quarts of drinkable water. I also have a pump filter that screws on a nalgene but only take it on long canoeing trips because its heavy and takes someone with free time to use.

Katadyn Vario? I have one too...sweet filter, but the cartridge life is a bit too little IMO.

[Tom v S]

A rolling boil is enough. If it boils good, it is okey to drink. You don't need 10 minutes.

I have a katadyn too, but only for emergency use, so never used it before.

[tkdman41]

Katadyn Vario? I have one too...sweet filter, but the cartridge life is a bit too little IMO.

Yup. Cartridge life isn't great and cleaning the ceramic filter is a pain as you have to cary cleaning pads also. It does work well while canoeing though especially if you have a man sitting in the middle of the canoe with nothing to do.

[JD Spydo]

Katadyn Vario? I have one too...sweet filter, but the cartridge life is a bit too little IMO.

I have personally looked at the Katadyn line of filters. They are Swiss made and are used by many military units around the globe. I've also heard that the life of the replacable filter is rather short.

For that reason I've been seriously looking at one made here in the USA by MSR. They are also sold by Aquarain ( http://www.aquarain.com). I have one of the home Aquarain units and I have had excellent results with it. But I've heard that the MSR portable unit is great and has very long filter life.

Also you can pre-filter water by running it through coffee filters to get much of the sediment out of it before running it through a top notch portable filter.

For the one brother who said you don't have to boil water for 10 minutes~~ I very kindly and respectfully disagree with him. That may be true in some cases but I've been told by a former Green Beret that water in places like Mexico and Central America is infested with Ameba type parasites and he said it takes from 8 to 10 minutes to successfully kill off those types of parasites. And anyway 10 minutes wouldn't be that long for me to wait anyway.

I hope to hear more about the chemical treatments. They seem to be gaining market share in the survival market. I hope to learn more about them. Great input so far guys

[tkdman41]

Boiling is also going to depend on altitude as you can not get the water as hot at a higher elevation.

[Tank]

I used a sweet water filter for many years and its served me well. Even though the filter works great I like to boil the water too if it looks pretty nasty.

[JD Spydo]

Boiling is also going to depend on altitude as you can not get the water as hot at a higher elevation.

That's a good point you make TDKMAN High elevations present many challenges needless to say. That's one of the main reasons I would like to know more about chemical water treatments and more about portable filters.

I've come to the conclusion that drinkable water and the ability to make a fire to keep warm by are 2 of the utmost important survival skills. But even with all of the weather anomalies along with natural disasters we should all be in a mode of preparedness.

Being in higher elevations presents a set of challenges that would constitute a topic of it's own. Being in the Rocky Mountains for instance would probably be one of the most difficult survival environments you could encounter other than being in a desert.

[asfaltpiloot]

I filter and boil it or filter and use the MSR Miox.

http://www.msrgear.com/watertreatment/miox.asp
It's small and light.
Uses a cr123 batterie and some salt.

A filter can be improvised:
http://stason.org/TULARC/sports/surviva ... echan.html

Great threads JD,
Keep it up.

[clovisc]

in zambia, i got water from a swampy area, used chlorine, and then a berkefeld filter to remove larger matter. the chlorine killed everything except crypto, which is self-regulating anyway... so there was nothing life-threatening to worry about.

i used iodine in a nalgene bottle when i was on the move. boiling works well, too. vampyre wolf says he'd use a sock as a filter... pretty much anything that catches bits of matter will make your H20 easier to drink.

out here, i don't have to worry about it. lots of naturally ready-to-drink water, plus near-constant rain.

if you're using a more sophisticated filtering system, you're going to be challenged by replacing the filter. which is costly. there's also more that can go wrong... and it's harder to transport a filter than iodine tabs or chlorine. leave the filter in your basecamp, or maybe vehicle.

on the topic of water... in addition to your treatment/filtering set-up, be sure to stock up on oral rehydration salts. (ORS).

nalgene bottles or high quality bladders work well for transporting water. pack some condoms, too, for emergency water storage. i'd take two nalgenes, condoms as back-up, a couple weeks worth of iodine tabs, a bottle of chlorine, and some ORS... and that was all i needed in the zambian bush. i also made sure i knew and kept track of where i could go to find water, if need be.

[clovisc]

on a related note, pertinent to daily non-SHTF survival... some of the ways in which most folks in the US get their water amaze and frighten me. people often drink compromised or questionable tap water, while at the same time, cooking the nutrients out of vegetables and pouring out the juices.

i get a good deal of H20 from juicing organic fruits and veggies in my breville juicer... fresh, vitamin-packed liquids every day. anything else that goes in my body goes through a brita filter first. i'm not convinced the end result is the greatest, but... definitely better than right from the tap. or from a soda -- not even going to go there.

[Lord vader]

Bleach is good for purifying water, and all it takes is to add using an Eye Dropper, add 2 drops of bleach will treat one quart of water. 8 drops of bleach will treat one gallon of water and you have to make sure you shake it up good.

[vampyrewolf]

sock as the main filter, then through a coffee filter into a bottle.

I use the chemical treatment from coghlan's and it hasn't failed me yet.
50 tablets each of treatment and neutralizer in a package. 2 tablets to a 1litre bottle, leave it sit with the lid cracked for 10min, shake well (leakage to clean the threads of the bottle), and tighten the lid. Let that sucker sit for 30-45min, then toss in 2 neutralizer tabs and shake again.

A package of coolaid will do wonders for the taste after.

Been using it with the water supplies around here (even when I did a 3 day canoe trip along the river 12years ago) and haven't gotten sick yet. The hour it takes to get drinkable water won't kill you and you can treat a larger quantity of water if needed. The bonus I find to using chemical treatment is that you don't have to feed a fire for 20min to get water.

Just found the package in my bag... 16.7% tetraglycine hydroperoidide & 6.68% titratable iodine in the treatment tablets. I only keep an open bottle for a year and get fresh supplies in the spring.

[clovisc]

good point on the koolaid, patrick. and the challenge of starting a fire.

i used to pack gatorade powder.

if you really want to neutralize the taste of skanky water, nothing beats some ORS... drinking that stuff can be absolutely miserable.

[vampyrewolf]

If you have the time at a secure base camp, a solar still will do 90% of the work for you. A small (3' across and 2' down) still will put out about a cup of water in 24hrs here. Have a few going around camp and plastic bags tied on to trees and you can easily get a litre a day of drinkable water without any treatment.

The key there is a secure base camp. Can't be done on the move.

The only time I boil is with snow, and that's being melted while I eat and can afford the 10min of heat.

[vampyrewolf]

good point on the koolaid, patrick. and the challenge of starting a fire.

i used to pack gatorade powder.

if you really want to neutralize the taste of skanky water, nothing beats some ORS... drinking that stuff can be absolutely miserable.

It's cheaper to buy a big tub of crystals, but a package of crystals can be packed easier.

[tea]

I've been hearing good things about Steripens:

Example:

http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_deta ... 4442624777


Small convenient and lasts longer then filters. Never tire done though. But would be tempted to get one before a filter/pump contraption. Less weight and easier to use and clean.