Making Water Safe to Drink: A Comprehensive Guide

How to Purify Water?  Water is essential to life. It exceeds the importance of food or even shelter. You could live weeks to a month or more without food, but only a few days without water, As a result, you have to be looking for places to find it, carry it, and ways to conserve it.

The bottled or purified water you have stored is unmatched. If you don’t have water stored, then rainwater is probably the next best to use. Outdoor people in need of drink can use Water Portable Water Purifier Packets.

Be Prepared

Clearwater isn’t the same as purified water., Assuming the water you find isn’t bottled and you’re worried it may not be safe to drink, then you need to purify it and remove any bacteria, viruses, and microorganisms.

The most common way is to boil it. This should kill whatever is living in the water. You could also distill your water by capturing the steam and cooling it till it condenses. This is generally done using a copper tube.

Streams and lakes are also a good source, but can contain pathogens, viruses, and microbes and should be treated. If you are stuck in a city and need water. then check your water heater, Most have water left in them even if the hot water is not flowing and the power’s been out for a week.

Water from streams and rivers can be cloudy and full of sediment. This can easily clog and destroy water filters. It’s best to try to find moving water over stagnant water. As you gather the water, try to avoid disturbing the bottom to reduce silt and dirt.

One way to still get water from lakes and rivers without destroying your filters is to stir in some alum (aluminum sulfate) This will remove mud and silt.

The alum will attach to the particulates and settle to the bottom. Once it settles, then the clear water can be poured off into another water container. This process has been used since the days of the Roman Empire. Now just boil or filter the water for further protection.

If you’re close to the ocean, then you may want to invest in a personal desalination device. A solar-powered desalination device as used in parts of the world can be bought for around $50.00. Or, you can use a water straw filter.

A quality personal water filter for each person in a family is strongly encouraged. Every person needs to be familiar with using one. Your filter should filter down to a minimum of 0.2 microns. These can also be used in a bug-out bag.

Ultraviolet light also kills what’s in your water that only looks clean. A UV water filter can disinfect your water and if you buy one that has a hand crank then you are still protected when the power is out. This can also be placed in a bug-out bag.

Water purification tablets are also excellent for purification. and need to be in your bug-out bag as well. Some water purification tablets will leave a subtle difference in the taste of the water. This can be reduced or eliminated by adding some of your favorite powdered drink mix to the now purified water.

Use household bleach to purify clean-looking water. Chlorine is used in many municipal water supplies. While chlorine bleach will kill bacteria, it won’t make other chemicals that may be in the water safe to drink.

If you’re stuck and need to purify water for drinking you will need to put 1/4 teaspoon of bleach per gallon of water. This is at a level of 5.25%-6% chlorine, If you are using bleach with a different concentration then you will have to adjust this.

Read the label to find the concentration level. Avoid bleach that has perfumes, colors, or other additives as these are just more chemicals and may not be safe to drink

Pools in your neighborhood could be used for bathing, but are not recommended for drinking, Swimming pools contain chlorine that kills bacteria and algae but you do not know how it was maintained.

Swimming pools also contain chemicals other than chlorine that can be time released. These may not be removed by filtering or boiling. This is in addition to what small children may have left in the pool.

How to Purify Water and Water Storage

Water storage containers should be made of BPA-free, food-grade plastic. This means just filling any plastic container is not going to be safe to drink. Non-food grade containers should only be used to hold water for washing.

There are many commercially available containers for water long-term water storage. There are also one-time-use containers that can hold up to 100 gallons of water in a bathtub for up to 12 weeks.

In the end, it’s better to have both long-term water storage and a container to fill a bathtub if an emergency is seen coming. This way your family can prepare while your neighbors are at stores looking at empty shelves.

The majority of people are going to need a minimum of 1 gallon of purified water for drinking per day. This is only a minimum for drinking and additional water will be needed for cooking and cleaning. Keep your purified water for food preparation and drinking.

When you’re short on water, then you’ll have to bathe less frequently and need to try to conserve when you do. If you are caught unprepared or have to leave, then you will have to fall back on what’s in your bug-out bag. Try this system to filter water.

Water is essential to life. It exceeds the importance of food or even shelter. You could live weeks to a month or more without food, but only a few days without water, As a result, you have to be looking for places to find it, carry it, and ways to conserve it.

The bottled or purified water you have stored is unmatched. If you don’t have water stored, then rainwater is probably the next best to use.

 

Starting with a clean tarp you will have to direct the water to a container to obtain later.

Stretch a tarp tied on 3 sides and adjust the fourth side so that water flows into water storage containers.