Finding and Purifying Water
From TEOTWiki
Water Storage and Purification
Water is probably the most necessary element for human life, with the exception of oxygen. When planning your water resources for survival you need to deal with three areas:
- Storing water
- Finding or obtaining water
- Purifying water
Finding water and purifying can overlap with some techniques, but remember you cannot over-purify water. If you're redundant on the purification, the only side effect will be catching anything the first process may have missed.
Contents |
Storing Water
Long Term
For your in-home cache or survival retreat stash, you should count on two gallons of water per-person per-day. While this is more water than necessary to survive (except in hot climates or after strenuous exertion) it ensures water is available for hygiene and cooking as well as drinking.
Commercial gallon bottles of filtered/purified spring water often carry expiration dates two years after the bottling date. A good rotation program is necessary to ensure your supply of water remains fresh and drinkable. You can buy cases of six one-gallon jugs, which frequently go on sale for just under 50 cents per gallon. The heavy-duty cardboard boxes stack easily and protect the jugs from rupturing.
If you store your own water, avoid milk cartons; due to the milk residue. Bleach bottles are recommended by some people, but bleach manufacturers don't recommend it.
If you have a spare refrigerator in the basement or the garage, use PET ( Polyethylene terephthalate) water bottles (the kind soda or liters of water come in) to fill any available freezer space. In addition to providing you with fresh, easily transportable drinking water, the ice can be used to cool food in the refigerator in the event of a power failure. These bottles, which are clear and have screw-on caps like soda bottles, will withstand many freeze-thaw cycles without bursting or leaking. (The bottom may distort when frozen, but this isn't usually a big problem.)
For self-storage of large amounts of water, you're probably better off with containers of at least 5 gallons. Food-grade plastic storage containers are available commercially in sizes from five gallons to 250 or more. Containers with handles and spouts are usually five to seven gallons, which will weigh between 40 and 56 pounds. Get too far beyond that and you'll have great difficulty moving a full tank.
15 gallon and 30 gallon containers used for food service -- such as delivery of syrups to soda bottlers and other manufacturers -- are often available on the surplus market. After proper cleaning, these are ideal for water storage -- as long as a tight seal can be maintained. 55 gallon drums and larger tanks are also useful for long-term storage. But make sure you have a good pump on hand!
Solutions designed to be added to water to prepare it for long-term storage are commercially available. Bleach can also be used to treat tap water from municipal sources. Added at a rate of about 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons, bleach can ensure the water will remain drinkable. Rotating the water in the tanks will help to avoid stagnation.
If you're in a survival situation where there is a limited amount of water, conservation is an important consideration. While drinking water is critical, water is also necessary for rehydrating and cooking dried foods. Water from boiling pasta, cooking vegetables and similar sources can and should be retained and drunk, after it has cooled. Canned vegetables also contain liquid that can be consumed.
To preserve water, save water from washing your hands, clothes and dishes to flush toilets. (Also consider Stilling the used water to reclaim a bit of it)
Short Term
People who have electric pumps drawing water from their well have learned the lesson of filling up all available pots and pans when a thunderstorm is brewing. What would you do if you knew your water supply would be disrupted in an hour?
Here are a few options in addition to filling the pots and pans:
Put two or three heavy-duty plastic trash bags (avoid those with post-consumer recycled content) inside each other. Then fill the inner bag with water. You can even use the trash can to give structure to the bag.
Fill your bath tub almost to the top. While you probably won't want to drink this water, it can be used to flush toilets, wash your hands, etc.
If you are at home, a fair amount of water will be stored in your water pipes and related system. To get access to this water, first close the valve to the outside as soon as possible. This will prevent the water from running out as pressure to the entire system drops and prevent contaminated water from entering your house. Then open a faucet on the top floor. This will let air into the system so a vacuum doesn't hold the water in. Next, you can open a faucet in the basement. Gravity should allow the water in your pipes to run out the open faucet. You can repeat this procedure for both hot and cold systems.
Your hot water heater will also have plenty of water inside it. You can access this water from the valve on the bottom. Again, you may need to open a faucet somewhere else in the house to ensure a smooth flow of water. Sediment often collects in the bottom of a hot water heater. While a good maintenance program can prevent this, it should not be dangerous. Simply allow any stirred up dirt to again drift to the bottom.
Finding and Collecting Water
There are certain climates and geographic locations where finding water will either be extremely easy or nearly impossible. You'll have to take your location into account when you read the following.
Basic Water Sources
Dew Collection
Rainwater
Bodies of Water
Plants
Yourself (through sweat and urine)
General Collection Info
Wherever you live, your best bet for finding a source of water is to scout out suitable locations and stock up necessary equipment before an emergency befalls you.
With proper preparedness, you should know not only the location of the nearest streams, springs or other water source but specific locations where it would be easy to fill a container and the safest way to get it home.
Preparedness also means having at hand an easily installable system for collecting rain water. This can range from large tarps or sheets of plastic to a system for collecting water run off from your roof or gutters. Once you have identified a source of water, you need to have bottles or other containers ready to transport it or store it. (See Storing Water, above)
Risks of Foreign Water
Water from sources you aren't intimately familiar with can be very dangerous. Water can carry multiple kinds of bacteria (salmonella and E. coli) and viruses, plant and animal toxins, chemical toxins, Giardia, hookworms, various protozoa and insects, heavy metals, and other fun stuff. If possible, drink bottled water from a sealed container, otherwise follow the purification techniques below. If neither is available, fresh rainwater is your next safest alternative, followed by groundspring water. (It's best if you can get as close to the flow source of the spring as possible, but don't be dumb enough to go into an underwater cave without a friend and a rope, you can get turned around easily and drown. But then you won't be short of water.)
Always err on the side of caution, potable water is important for survival. You can last days and sometimes weeks without food, but people going longer than 3 days without water rarely survive.
Collection Techniques
Always take advantage of time and location to collect water. As much as possible. Do not wait until you are thirsty, take advantage if you happen by a ready source. Water is VERY important.
 DANGER TO HEALTH You should always assume water you have not directly purified is contaminated. Even though it may in fact be clean, it never hurts to take the time to purify any water. The consequences of drinking contaminated water can vary widely, some being as severe as death, though mild dysentery is the most common. |
Simple Collection
From open bodies of water, streams, rivers, ponds etc., it's usually easy enough to fill a container directly from the source. Rainfall can be collected in open containers, like drums tarps or buckets.
Transpiration
('Sweat-bagging' plants)
Similar to stilling, this uses a greenhouse effect and essentially collects the water a plant will extrude from it's stoma when it is hot. Take a simple plastic bag and wrap it loosely around a non-poisonous plant in direct sunlight, with a corner down. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW IF THE PLANT IS TOXIC, don't go and do this on some sumac or something, or the water will make you barf and have uncontrollable diarrhea and lose even more fluid. Stick to things like carnations and kudzu and the like. Try to get all of the leaves of the particular plant in the bag, then tie the bag around the stem. A bit of water will collect at the bottom of the bag over time if the sun is directly on the bag heating it. The bag may inflate a bit, pay it no mind but try to avoid letting it close to a fire if it appears distended. The byproduct of this method if your bag is airtight is essentially a bag of water and oxygen after a few days.
Stilling
Dig a hole a couple of feet in the ground in a place that receives direct sunlight.
Place a collection basin in the center of the hole.
Waste water, urine, saturated plants, other sources of dirty water should be put into the soil in bottom of hole. Flooding is OK as long as the basin remains still and does not float or move.
Cover with clear plastic tarp, weigh all edges down, and place a weight in center over collection basin.
The heat from the sun will evaporate the ground water. Steam will condense and collect on the plastic, and run towards the weighted center of the plastic sheet. This will collect and drip distilled (clean) water into your collection basin. (Bucket or pot)
This works best if you can do this from before sunrise to a couple hours after sunset. Alternatively, you can make the evaporation still permanent if you insert a draw tube into the basin through the plastic. (Best if you keep it airtight).
Tips
Do not use poisonous plants in your mash, they can release airborne toxins that may reincorporate in the condensed water.
Cactus and aloe give off a lot of water.
If you're going to be in the area a long while, use the pit for urine, as this will reclaim as well.
This method will not provide enough to sustain a person long with a single still, but it will supplement other methods.
Purification Techniques
Filtering
Filtering is important, you can remove some sediments just by running the water through a rag. Coffee filters or paper towels can refine the process further. Some canteens have filters installed. In an emergency, this can be sufficient to keep you hydrated and alive, but it's always best to use a more effective purification technique whenever possible. You can combine filtering with any of the other techniques for added safety, just do the filtering first. You may want to filter water obtained through the Transpiration method above as well, as leaves and seeds can fall into the bag with the water you've collected.
You can purchase ceramic filters, automatic filters, or even filtering jugs (Like Brita, Katadyn or PūR). The down side being expense and limited capacity. Filters are good for anywhere from 200 liters to thousands of gallons, depending on the filter size and mechanism. Some filters use fiberglass and activated charcoal. Others use impregnated resin or even ceramic elements.Most of these will remove heavy metals such as lead or mercury as well, which boiling will not do.
You can also build a filter with basic materials and charcoal or sand.
These instructions come from Captain Dave's Survival Center:
- Take a five or seven gallon pail (a 55-gallon drum can also be used for a larger scale system) and drill or punch a series of small holes on the bottom.
- Place several layers of cloth on the bottom of the bucket, this can be anything from denim to an old table cloth.
- Add a thick layer of sand (preferred) or loose dirt. This will be the main filtering element, so you should add at least half of the pail's depth.
- Add another few layers of cloth, weighted down with a few larger rocks.
- Your home-made filter should be several inches below the top of the bucket.
- Place another bucket or other collection device under the holes you punched on the bottom.
- Pour collected or gathered water into the top of your new filter system. As gravity works its magic, the water will filter through the media and drip out the bottom, into your collection device. If the water is cloudy or full of sediment, simply let it drop to the bottom and draw the cleaner water off the top of your collection device with a straw or tube.
- (If you have a stash of activated charcoal, possibly acquired from an acquarium dealer, you can put a layer inside this filter. Place a layer of cloth above and especially below the charcoal. This will remove other contaminants and reduce any unpleasnt smell or taste.)
While this system may not be the best purification method, it has been successfully used in the past. For rain water or water gathered from what appear to be relatively clean sources of running water, the system should work fine. If you have no water source but a contaminated puddle, oily highway runoff or similar polluted source, the filter may be better than nothing, but it's not a great option.
Once the system has been established and works, you must remember to change the sand or dirt regularly.
Boiling
Boiling is effective and easy to do. Provided you have a metal pot and a source of fire, you can do this anywhere. Boiling works by raising the temperature of the water past the point most organisms can survive. 100°C or 212°F is plenty high enough to kill most things that can harm you. Once it's boiled for 20-30 minutes, let it cool a little bit then transfer it to a clean container you can close. Do not drink hot water as it can cause you to vomit.
 CAUTION One should consider that boiling water will not remove foreign contaminants such as radiation or heavy metals. |
Chemical Treatment
Sporting good stores often sell chemical water treatments in liquid, powder or tablet form. As there are multiple makeups, various pill sizes and multiple different formulas in the makeup of these treatments, it is important to follow the specific directions for the specific brand you buy.
The major negative to chemical treatments is a limited shelf life. Be mindful of the expiration dates, as they can become ineffective, or worse toxic.
Bleach
This is technically chemical treatment, but this is measurable and generic instructions will work for all bleaches. Bleach is an emergency lifesaver. If none of the other methods are readily available, you can often get by with a few drops of bleach. (Plain, do not use scented or special bleaches, as they contain other chemicals that can make you sick)
First let water stand until particles settle. Filter the particles if necessary with layers of cloth, coffee filters, or fine paper towels. Pour the clear water into an uncontaminated container and add regular bleach per the below indicated ratio. Mix well. Wait 30 min. Water should have a slight bleach odor. If not, repeat dose. Wait 15 min. Sniff again. Keep an eyedropper taped to your emergency bottle of bleach, since purifying small amounts of water requires only a few drops. Bleach must be fresh for best use and results. See below suggestions for storage bottle replacement.
Don't pour purified water into contaminated containers. Sanitize water jugs first.
Without water and electricity, even everyday tasks are tough. In lieu of steaming hot water, sanitize dishes, pots and utensils with a little bleach. Just follow the directions below to keep dishes clean.
Whether you use bleach in an emergency or for everyday chores, it's always an environmentally sound choice. After its work is done, bleach breaks down to little more than salt and water, which is acceptable anytime.
Ratio of Bleach to Water for Purification
- 2 drops of Bleach per quart of water
- 8 drops of Bleach per gallon of water
- 1/2 teaspoon Bleach per five gallons of water
If water is cloudy, double the recommended dosages of Bleach.
Only use plain bleach, and try to keep your bottle fairly fresh -- if possible, replace it every 3-6 months.
