Camping & Survival
5 Five Ways to Make Almost Any Water Safe to Drink
The drinking of contaminated water is among the leading causes of deaths and health problems in the entire world.
Bearing this in mind, isn’t there a need for you to take adequate measures the next time you go on a camping trip? Here are a few water treatment methods for you to utilize:
Chlorine Bleach
Standard chlorine bleach—the kind you can find easily in the market—can be used as effective option for the treatment of water. While the use of bleach for the purpose of the treatment of water can have its disadvantages—considering that it bestows a strange taste upon the water—the fact of the matter is that the use of bleach is among the cheapest methods for the purification of water. Why? Well, it’s because bleach is cheap and readily available…duh!
You need only a small quantity of bleach—equal to about an eighth of a teaspoon—to treat a gallon of water. Once you’ve let the chlorine stand in water for about thirty minutes or so, the water should smell funny. If it doesn’t, repeat the process or find a different source of water because chlorine is unable to treat the given sample of water!
Boiling
Well, the use of boiling for treating water should come as a no brainer. It is among the oldest and most commonly known methods for the purification of water. It’s a pretty straightforward method that can yield great results without the need for much hassle. Unlike the use of chlorine, boiling doesn’t fiddle with the taste of the water either, meaning that you won’t find water to have a funny taste once the treatment is done and over with!
All you need to do is heat the water until it reaches the level of rapid boiling. Once the state of boiling is reached, allow the water to hold it for about a minute and then set it aside to cool. The best part is that boiling comes with no visible side effects, unless of course you accidentally spill boiling water onto yourself (yikes!).
UV Treatment
UV treatment is another method that is effective for the treatment of water. Much like boiling, UV treatment is effective and doesn’t cause the taste of the water to be changed. On top of that, UV treatment is much safer than boiling—owing to how there’s no boiling water to spill onto your feet. However, the true advantage of UV treatment lies in the elimination of wait time, for a liter of water can be easily treated in about 90 seconds or so. Considering all that UV treatment has got to offer, it’s no surprise that the UV treatment systems cost as much as they do!
Colloidal Silver
The use of colloidal silver is, perhaps, the best method for the treatment of water. Yet, not many people know about it. Apart from fashion and jewelry, silver has got the property of binding germs and killing the proteins that are necessary for their survival. Colloidal silver, thus, is a wonderful antibacterial agent. The treatment of water with colloidal silver is a, pretty, simple procedure that requires only about an ounce of the colloidal silver solution to be added to a gallon of water and leaving it be—for about 30 minutes—before usage.
Talking about the colloidal silver solution, it’ll need to be 10ppm solution made from a colloidal silver generator and two cups of distilled water. It’s important to remember, however, that only distilled water is supposed to be used for the colloidal silver solution.
Iodine Tablets
Iodine tablets are another alternative that can be utilized for the treatment of water. If iodine tablets are unavailable, a 2 percent iodine tincture can also be utilized for this purpose. Regardless of whatever you might choose to use, the fact of the matter is that the use of iodine comes with a disadvantage—it has the biggest impact on the taste of the water out of all other procedures. However, that’s no excuse to gulp contaminated water down your throats, or is it?
Regardless of whether you’re in the comfort of your home or camping in the great outdoors, the use of contaminated water—especially for water—should NEVER be an option. It’s important, therefore, for you to ensure that you’re equipped with all of the water purification necessities so that there’s no need for you to put the wellbeing of your family in jeopardy!