Filtering & Purifying Water

Depending on where you're stranded in the world, locating water needs to be your No#1 priority. Without it, you can't survive anymore than a few days or a week, especially in a hot desert or tropical climate.

Just so you understand how important water is, the average person needs to drink about 4 quarts/liters of water a day to replace body fluids lost through perspiration, sweat, urinating, and heavy breathing too. And as time goes on and you fail to replace these fluids adequately…that's when your troubles begin. Dehydration, exhaustion, fatigue, hypothermia, "brain lock," etc, which eventually and almost always leads to death. And so two important things you need to remember when it comes to not having any water to drink… DON'T eat, because in order to digest food you need water, lots of it. And DON'T drink any suspected contaminated, discolored, and or smelly water neither because it could give you diarrhea and or produce vomiting thus speeding up your dehydration and death too.

So what do you do if you're dying of thirst and come across some water that you're not sure is safe to drink? Well, it's entirely up to you and depends on how desperate you are for water. But if you've been wandering around for days without any water and you're starting to feel weak, delirious, and downright desperate for something to drink. You got a choice, you can either die from dehydration or risk dying from unsafe/contaminated water.

Now personally, if I was wondering around for days without any water and suddenly came across some, provided it wasn't discolored or have a strange odor… I'd drink it. Why? I'd rather risk drinking unsafe water and hope it would give me enough strength to travel/continue on just little bit further and longer than to give up and die right there on the spot from dehydration. After all, whether you feel ill after drinking some suspected contaminated water or not, if it gives you the strength to place one-foot-in-front-of-the-other and move on, your chances of surviving and being rescued before it actually overcomes you with severe illness is greater then giving up and lying down somewhere and dying, don't ya think? Sure it is!

No doubt you probably prefer to have some clean, safe, purified, water to drink, right? Sure, everybody would, but sometimes it's just not possible to find, ya know? And although there are many ways in how to find, improvise and acquire water, the following are the most "commonly overlooked" techniques that require none or very little filtering and "no purifying." And the only things you need are some "clear" plastic trash bags, an empty bottle, and a couple of handkerchiefs, and the more you have - the more water you'll be able to produce. Note: Always pack a few of these in your survival kit, except a bottle, of course.

Because a tree holds an enormous amount of water, if you place a clear plastic bag over a "leafy green" branch you'll force it to cough up some of the water through condensation. But it's important to make sure the bag is tightly sealed around the branch or it won't produce any water at all.

And no matter where you go today, plastic and glass bottles can be found littered almost everywhere, even in some of the most remote and isolated places of the world. Really! (Well maybe not everywhere…) And if you take a "green leafy" branch and place it inside a bottle and seal it close, by the end of a hot sunny day it'll produce as much as 1/3 cup of water. And so the more bottles and or plastic bags you use - the more water you can produce. Figure it out, bubba!

And of course, the best time to acquire clean water is when it rains, and the fastest and easiest way to gather it is by laying out sheets of plastic cut from trash bags. But if you don't have anything to carry the water in, then it's probably better to just roll up the sides of a trash bag and allow mother nature to slowly fill it.

And lastly, in the early mornings and some- times late at night, if you tie a couple of handkerchiefs or rags around your ankles and or to the end of a stick and walk through some tall grass you'll be able to soak up quite a bit of moisture, then all you gotta do is wring it out. Yep, a crude, slow method… but works!

Now let's talk about how to filter and purify water...

When it comes to filtering and purifying water for consumption, you can't screw around and take shortcuts. You either do it right or you're gonna get terribly ill, or worse yet, die from improperly treated water if you can't get to a medical facility in time.

So what's the difference between filtering and purifying water?

Filtering is the removal all "visual" particles and matter from the water such as dirt, leaves, critters, etc, so it can be properly purified and then safely consumed.  

Purifying is the removal of all "invisible" bacteria, germs and other harmful elements from the water so it can be safely consumed.

You got it? In other words, "before you can consume untreated water, you've got to purify it, and before you can purify it, you've got to first filter it." (Untreated Water + Filter + Purify  = Safe To Drink)

Got it? Good! Now let me show you a few ways in how to make a water filter, and believe it or not, my techniques are much more simpler than what other survival sites and books teach ya. And if you don't think so after I show you, feel free to send me a nasty e-mail, (rangerbooks@hotmail.com).

Did you like this water filter tip? Well here's another one you can make with a plastic water bottle, and two different types too, a "simple" and an "elaborate" water bottle filter.        

 Why would you want to make an elaborate water filter?

And to make one, all you need is an empty plastic water bottle and three white socks. Then all you gotta do is cut the bottle in half, roll tightly up each sock, turn the top half of the bottle upside down and …

WARNING: When pouring untreated water through this filter system, make sure you look closely at the filtered water to insure it looks clear, and if it doesn't, then run the water back through it again. And if necessary, again and again and again until it looks filtered and clear.

Ok, this was my "elaborate" filter system for nasty water, now here's my "simple" filter system for somewhat clear and odorless water. And all you need for this system is an empty plastic water bottle, 1 x clean "white" sock and then look closely at this next picture to see how easy it is to make.          

No matter which one of these filter systems you make and use, always try to use a "white" sock, cloth, cotton, or coffee filter so you can see when it's dirty and needs to be replaced or clean. Makes sense, don't ya think? Sure does!    

Now let's talk about how to purify water, and boy, are there a lot of expensive water purification gadgets on the market today, but only if you're "rich & wealthy" can you afford to buy them. And if you're not, or you're a tightwad like me, you can always boil it, bleach it, or tab it.

Sound simple enough to do? It is if you know the difference between "simmering" and "boiling."

Simmering is when the water releases "visual vapors" because it's getting hot, but there's no sound coming from the pot/can. Boiling is when the water releases "visual vapors," you  "hear a sound" coming from the pot/can and when you look inside you can see "bubbles popping" to the surface of the water.

 Now once it begins to boil, it takes ten minutes before it's considered purified, free of germs, bacteria, and other harmful elements and safe to drink. And don't worry about over boiling, it's better to let it boil for more than ten minutes than less than ten minutes to make sure all those harmful micro-organisms and other nasty critters are all dead. And then once you've done this, all ya gotta do now is sit back and wait until the water cools before you can drink it.

 TO BLEACH IT – You'll need some plastic drinking straws, silicone, a piece of cardboard and Clorox "Regular" Bleach. WARNING: Use strictly Clorox "Regular" Bleach and NOT the scented, lime, or other type or it WILL BE harmful to your health.                                  

 Then take a drinking straw, cut it into 1" inch long pieces, place a few drops of silicone on the cardboard and then stand the straws straight up in it and wait until they're completely dry.

Why only four (4) drops of Clorox Bleach?

According to the manufacturer, it takes four (4) drops of Clorox "Regular" Bleach and thirty minutes to purify 1 x quart/liter of "clear water" for safe consumption. And if the water doesn't have a slight bleach odor to it after waiting 30 minutes, repeat the process. To confirm this dosage, call the Clorox Bleach toll-free "consumer hotline" at 1-800-292-2200. 

Once the silicone is dry, you can then remove the straws from the cardboard and place them inside your survival kit until you need to use'em. But if you don't use'em for a long time, because I really don't know how long the liquid will stay good in the straws. Then I suggest you open one every 3-6 months to see if it still has a strong bleach odor, and if it doesn't, or the liquid looks strange…replace'em.

TO TAB IT - You'll need to buy a bottle of water purification tablets from a military/outdoor supply store, sometimes referred to as "iodine tablets" too.

Now the only thing I don't like about these tablets, is according to health officials, once the seal of the bottle is broken you gotta use'em all up within 6-12 months or you gotta throw'em away.

NOTE: Avoid picking up the tablets with your bare fingers, because due to your natural skin moisture/oils it causes the tablets to change color and quickly deteriorate, use a pair of tweezers to place them inside the straws.

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