If you have a fridge and freezer, you are part of the privileged few with access to cold drinks and ice. The rest of the world makes do with water at room temperature. If the water that comes from the tap is safe to drink, you are part of an even smaller privileged minority who live in luxury while the rest of the world drinks dirty water and risks a multitude of water-borne killer diseases.

Hydration: Bare Essentials, What You Need To Know To Stay Alive

1 litre of water /day will lead to kidney failure. It’s not clever to think that this is a survival skill, despite what some people who call themselves preppers will tell you. The bare minimum is 2ltr/day under normal conditions. Under heatwave conditions, water consumption needs to increase to 3, 4 or 5 litres with electrolytes and extra salt on your food. There’s a fine balance between remaining hydrated and washing the minerals out of your bloodstream. Electrolytes help replace those minerals. Hydration during extreme heat should also be with cold or iced water to help cool the body.

Turning Dirty Water Into Drinking Water

THE GOLD STANDARD FOR WATER PURIFICATION IS BOILING AFTER FILTRATION & CHEMICAL TREATMENT

At this point, I should add that this will be part of a series of posts in the Dystopian Survivalism Series. Tackling some of the risks which the collapse of the AMOC presents. In looking at sanitation, starting with potable water, we are faced with 2 problems:

1. Obtaining water from 0- -20 °C
2. Collecting water and storing it for long-term use, including during sub-zero conditions.

The Lifestraw can be unreliable: “Sick walkers rescued after drinking river water on West Highland Way”.

“The first incident happened on Wednesday last week when the team evacuated a German man who was described as “incapacitated” near the remote Rowchoish Bothy.

He had been vomiting since the previous evening and was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

“Then on Tuesday this week, volunteers from Lomond MRT were called out again, this time to an American man north of Rowardennan, by Loch Lomond, who had also spent the evening being sick and was unable to walk.”

“The team leader of Lomond Mountain Rescue, David Dodson, said both men had drunk from a stream around Conic Hill, most probably Burn of Mar, and became ill despite using straw-type filter systems – lightweight devices walkers use that remove contaminants as they drink.”

LifeStraws, under certain conditions, are ineffective

XReadiness continues to recommend water purification tablets/filter (filter straws) for their Go-Bag, in a SHTF ingestion of untreated water https://rebellion.global/assets/pdf/xreadiness/XReadiness_Booklet_V1.pdf (Page 6)

Water Purification Is A Multi-Step Process Requiring Organisation To Avoid Cross-Contamination

THE GOLD STANDARD FOR WATER PURIFICATION IS BOILING AFTER FILTRATION & CHEMICAL TREATMENT

Collecting water starts with knowing your water source, followed by understanding the process of purification for the purpose of drinking.

Settling, Filtration & Flocculants.

The Millbank Millbag is a cloth bag; it is a primitive mechanical system which removes larger contaminants, but it won’t remove microscopic suspended particles, viruses, cysts, bacteria or amoebae

There are 3 options for removing suspended impurities:

1. Gravity settling.
2. Filtration screens
3. Flocculants

Settling & Filtration

If you have the luxury of a clear-running stream, then the process of settling suspended particles isn’t necessary, but to make it drinkable, treat it with iodine or chlorine and boil it.

If the water is turbid (cloudy, milky or opaque), then it will require settling, which can be done naturally with gravity or by using flocculants.

There are a couple of easy solutions for flocculation.

The Puribag: A professional disaster relief water purification system that can be air-dropped to people trapped by floodwater, giving them a low-cost water purification method in an emergency.

The Puribag system is for purifying water, with high levels of suspended particles which would otherwise clog most professional filter systems in minutes, rendering them useless. I use the Puribag because it is fast, and the P&G chemical flocculant also contains chlorine to ensure the water is free from other contaminants. Puribag is an alternative to moving vast amounts of bottled water into flood disaster zones.

Did You Know Flocculants Have Been Used in Antiquity To Purify Water?

Alum or Phitkari is the miracle stone, sometimes known as shavers or deodorant stone. This mildly antiseptic, vasal constricting, astringent mineral has been used for medicine since the earliest ancient Egyptian dynasties. trace amounts of aluminum have been detected in ancient Egyptian mummy bones. Archaeologists suggest this is a result of the Egyptians using potassium alum to purify their drinking water and reduce cloudiness—a historical water treatment technique that left residual traces in their remains:

“Mohamed Kasem of Cairo University said the researchers detected lead, aluminum, and other elements in the bones that they think reflect the toxicity of the ancient Egyptian environment. The aluminum is thought to have come from the potassium alum compound added to drinking water to reduce cloudiness,” archaeology.org/

The Romans (and earlier Egyptians) used alum (aluminum sulfate) as a natural coagulant to purify drinking water. It acted as a flocculant, causing suspended mud and microscopic particles to clump together into larger, heavy masses (“floc”) that sank to the bottom, allowing for clearer water at the top

Alum clarifies water through a chemical process called coagulation and flocculation:

1. Neutralisation: Alum is introduced into the muddy or turbid water.
2. Clumping: The alum neutralises the electrical charges of microscopic, suspended silt and organic particles that make the water cloudy.
3. Settling: These neutralised particles bond together into larger, heavier clumps (floc).
4. Separation: Over a few hours, these heavy clumps sink to the bottom of the container, leaving the clear water above ready to be drawn off.

You can buy Alum (powder) or Phitkari (lumps) in most Asian supermarkets, and do this experiment at home:

Flocculation is what the water companies in the UK use to treat the water we get from the taps.

NEXT Is Filtration: Most Preppers Will Tell You That You Need To Buy A Filter, Ideally The One They Recommend So They Get A Commission, You Don’t, You Need Knowledge.

Preppers won’t tell you that you can make a plant-based biodegradable water filter using plant Xylem. The Xylem Water Filter can remove “99.9% of bacteria and viruses were filtered from synthetic test waters. In field tests, the filters removed coliform bacteria from contaminated spring, tap, and ground waters.”

The plant-based water filter was so important that engineers at MIT tested the idea with great success:

Caption: Xylem tissue in gymnosperm sapwood can be used for water filtration (as seen on top). Xylem is comprised of conduits that are interconnected by membranes that filter out contaminants present in water (bottom). Credits: Courtesy: N.R. Fuller, Sayo Studio

“The researchers took their techniques to India, where they made xylem filters from native trees and tested the filters with local users. Based on their feedback, the team developed a prototype of a simple filtration system, fitted with replaceable xylem filters that purified water at a rate of one litre per hour.” https://news.mit.edu/2021/filters-sapwood-purify-water-0325

DIY Xylem Water Filter Experiment In Action

Commercially bought filters need special care and wear out. The alternative is understanding the science behind capillary filtration and then imitating it with plants. I have made my own xylem water filters in my backyard lab. The 2 best branches were Pine and Ginkgo.

Boiling: Is the GOLD STANDARD of Safe Drinking Water

However, boiling does not remove:

• PFAS, including persistent compounds such as PFOA and PFOS
• Lead and other heavy metals
• Nitrate and nitrite
• Arsenic
• Industrial solvents
• Most pesticides
• Excess minerals and salts

Boiling unfiltered dirty water in an emergency is not advisable:

• If the water is contaminated with microbes, boiling makes it safer.
• If the water contains chemical pollutants, boiling may do nothing, or even make the problem worse by concentrating them.
• If the water comes from a visibly dirty source, boiling does not remove sediment, dirt, or chemical residues.

Rudimentary filters can be made from clothes to reduce particles.

A few practical tips can make boiling more effective:

• Use a clean pot or kettle
• Bring the water to a full, rolling boil, not just a few bubbles
• Let it cool naturally before transferring it to a clean container
• Store boiled water separately from untreated water to avoid recontamination or cross-contamination.

Recontamination is easy to overlook. You can boil water perfectly and then contaminate it again with a dirty ladle, a poorly cleaned bottle, or an unwashed storage container. Purified water is only as good as the container it ends up in.

This means that purifying floodwater, which some preppers think can be filtered, is actually dangerous too. The Use of flood water for drinking when using the Puribag is only for emergencies when there is nothing else. The Puribag is the only system suitable for floodwater, but it does not guarantee the removal of toxic chemicals.

Harvesting Rainwater, Storage, & Drinking

Just like any other water, rainwater needs to be made safe for drinking, but beware it does contain PFA’s & forever chemicals. I use MDPE food-grade, 220-litre resealable barrels which once contained olives. These barrels are opaque, and so Algae doesn’t grow in them. 2,200 litres has a footprint of 2.5 sqm.

Water purification is a knowledge-based skill; you are responsible for the water you produce to be free from pathogens and safe to drink.