Emergency Water Purification Methods

The safest place to collect water is to capture rain water in a clean container or to get water from a plant. Typically this will be safe to drink as is.

However, it’s better to be safe than sorry and we’ll show you below how to purify any water you can get. And, of course it isn’t going to rain every time you need some water, so you can also get water from, (NOTE – Always Purify Water From These Gathering Methods) lakes, ponds, swamps and springs.

Whenever possible you should purify any water you get with iodine, clorine or by boiling it.

To purify your water you can use any of the methods below.

1. By using water purification tablets. (Follow the directions provided with the tablets.) Here’s a cheap source to get water purification tablets.
2. By using 5 drops of 2% tincture of iodine in a canteen full of clear water. Use 10 drops if your water is a little cloudy or cold. (Wait at least 30 minutes before drinking the treated water.)
3. Last but not least, you can boil any water you have for 10 minutes.

That covers water purification. I’m not sure about you but I’m not to thrilled about drinking water that’s cloudy, muddy, stagnant or worst of all smells bad. So, (If you’re like me) you’ll want to filter your water before you purify it. So, here are a couple of ways to do it.

Water filtration doesn’t happen in just a few minutes so before attempting these methods make sure you have at least 12 hours in the same spot.

This is the easiest method of filtering water in any emergency situation. It’s also the most time consuming. Simply let the water stand completely still in a container for 12-24 hours. Mud sedament and debris will settle to the bottom of the container and you can skim the clear water from the top.

Be sure not to disturb the settled debris in the bottom. If you do, you can easily stir up anything that’s settled and you’ll have to start the process all over.

The first step here is to find a filtering material, you can use: sand, crushed rocks or a very dense cloth as you filter media.

You’ll need to build several layers for your water to filter through. You can see an example in the picture above.

NOTE** It’s preferable to build your layers using a waterproof material such as plastic. But you’ll have to use whatever you have access to at the time.

1. Create at least three layers for your water to filter throufh as seen in the diagram above. (If using plasic punch a tiny hole in the middle, large enough for water to seep through but small enough to hold in your filter media.)
2. Fill your layers with at least a couple inches of your chosen filter media. (Listed above.)
3. Pour your water into the top layer, being sure not to overflow the top layer.

Depending on how much water you have you may have to refill the top layer numerous times to get it all filtered.

ALSO, remember, filtering IS NOT purification. You’ll still need to purify the water you retrieve from the filtering process.

If your water smells bad, add charcoal from your fire (Be sure it is cool first) to your filter, this should remove any foul odors.