Water Purification Techniques in the Wild

More on the survival side of things, we have the main source of human living: water. The saying goes, shelter, water, fire, food, with of course any number of exceptions given whatever situation you find yourself in, and many times water will bump shelter off the top. Many of you may be aware that not all fresh water is drinkable water, but may not know of the different ways you can purify your water even if it seems suspicious from the get-go. Let’s take a quick look.

Say you are dying of thirst and come across a stream in the wilderness, if it is flowing well and the water is clear, it has a much better chance of being drinkable. Even better if the water is flowing downward through rocks, silt, or moss and the like, this will filter out bacteria even more. However, if it is flowing and the water is cloudy, the chances of harmful bacteria being present increase. If it is not flowing at all, and clear, these chances increase further, and if it is cloudy and stagnant, don’t even think about it. Seeing foam or froth in the water, no matter the flow, is a good indicator to steer clear as well.

Iodine

If you find yourself lucky enough to have a little bottle of iodine drops on you, then it shouldn’t be hard at all to purify your water. The general rule of thumb goes as follows, five drops per quart of water if it is clear, and ten drops per quart if it is murky. 

Gypsy Well

This is an age old technique that has been used throughout the world to locate fresh water. Go to your water source, and begin digging a hole about one foot from the edge and about a foot deep. The depth will vary though, depending on the depth of the water table in whatever ground you find yourself working on. Once water starts to seep into your hole, wait a while for it to fill up, and if you can stand it, a while longer for any silt or dirt to settle at the bottom. This will normally present you with a fresh water source, for the carbon in the dirt along with the silt or sand and other things act as a filter, though you should always remain cautious. If the water tastes unclean or even if you remain suspicious, putting this water through a secondary system of purification is always recommended.

Make Your Own Filtration System

If you have some sort of water bottle, this will work best. Hollowed out logs or bamboo will work too! Cut the bottom off and turn the bottle upside down. The layers of what you should place into the bottle go as follows, some sort of cloth at the neck of the bottle, the finest grain sand you can find, charcoal, the coarsest grain sand you can find, and small rocks to top it off. The amount of these layers and sometimes the order of them tend to vary based on preference or experience, for example some place the charcoal as the second layer followed by a sandwich of fine sand, coarse sand, fine sand, topped with rocks, but this is the gist of it. Pour your water over the rocks and let it drip into a collection pot below.

Boiling

This is the most foolproof method for purifying your water. Hopefully you are able to get a fire going and have or can create a sort of carrier that can be placed over the fire and heated enough to get a good boil without catching fire itself. Get the water to a rolling boil and leave it there for ten minutes. After ten minutes, all harmful bacteria should be utterly decimated. Don’t forget to let it cool! If you can’t wait, simply place the pot with your hot clean water partially dipped into the initial water source to get the cool water around it to lower you’re drinking water’s temperature a bit quicker. 

Rain

Last but never least, we have simply, rain! If you find a storm is coming or you are in the thick of one, make sure to have places where the rain drops can collect for you to drink later. This can be anything from large leaves or hollowed logs/bamboo to containers you have with you. If a storm has just passed, look for these very leaves and see what you can scavenge. Puddles on the ground will work as well, but you must always be very careful when choosing which puddles to take from as this is a bit more risky.  

Hopefully this will help those of you who were wondering or weren’t sure, but no matter what your method ends up being, don’t forget to always stay cautious! Drinking bad water can mean the very literal difference between life and death out in the wilderness!