One of the most important things that our body needs to live is water, and if we were to go 3 days without water our body would pack in and we would be dead. Food is slightly different as we can last up to 3 weeks as our body starts to rely on stored fat and nutrients within our system.
The biggest issue when out in the wilderness is finding a water source, and even if you do manage to find one you can’t just pour yourself a cup and start drinking it. You see, water like this can contain some seriously harmful bacteria and can make you pretty ill. What you need to do when you find a water source is to purify the water before you begin to drink it.
There are a number of ways that you can do this, and we are about to show you the popular ways. Whether you have equipment in your rucksack, or you really are going back to basics there is every opportunity to purify the water you find.
Found Water? Just Boil it
The first and most primitive ways to purify water is to boil it, let it cool and then drink it. It’s simple and it just works. Boiling water in this manner will take out harmful bacteria and allow you to consume it without having to worry about repercussions.
The only issue with this type of purification is that you need to start a fire, and you need a saucepan to place the water into to begin boiling it.
If you really want to go to lengths in getting a nice tasting cup of water you should filter it first so that you can remove any dirt or sand for the water, before you begin the boiling process.
Found Water? Use Some Purifying Tablets
One of the more modern ways to purify water, fast and effectively is to use Iodine tablets, they do have drawbacks as the water doesn’t taste that great once you have used these in them but you can bet your bottom dollar that there won’t be any bacteria to cause you any harm.
As a rule of thumb you add one tablet for each liter of water you want to purify, you will then need to fix the tablet in the water until it has broken down and disappeared. Once it has dissolved wait for a period of between 30-45 minutes before you start drinking the water as you want to make sure it has killed off all bacteria.
Found Water? Use The Wilderness
If you really want to go back to basics then this tip is definitely for you. You will need your knife from your backpack to cut a cone from some bark. Then what you want to do is line the cone with sand, grass, pebbles or small rocks and charcoal. Once you have completed this step just pour the water through the cone and have something at the bottom to catch it as it comes out.
As this is one of the most basic forms of purification, you aren’t going to remove everything from the water but the process (if repeated a few times) will do a good job on getting rid of a good amount of contaminants from the water.
Found Water? Use Your Water Bottle
If you feel like you have enough challenges to face in the wild and just want a break, you can buy water bottle with built in purifiers. These work like water pumps in the fact that water will run through the purifier at the top of the bottle neck before releasing it into the main body of the bottle.
You can buy these bottles from any good retail store and then just make room in your backpack for it. Whenever you run out of water just take it out and fill it up like you would with any ordinary bottle.
It’s a cheat way to purify water but why stress yourself out when there are items like this available at your local stores.