As we know very well, 2020 is full of surprises. And this summer sure has been a wild one. It has been a record year for natural disasters. Between the tropical storms, hurricanes, and wildfires, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. This means pretty much anyone anywhere could suddenly find themselves in an emergency survival situation. Years ago, September was decided to be disaster preparedness month. And as hurricane season comes to its end, we still want to make sure that our survival go-bags are stocked and ready to go. Additionally, it is important to do research on what to do if you're in a survival situation. As we mentioned in a previous post about the rule of 3's, humans can go 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. Today, we will focus on ways to obtain clean drinking water.
Be Prepared In Advance
When I was a child, adults would always tell me, "It's always better to have and not need, than to need and not have". That's a line that has stayed with me for years and try to live by it in all I do. With regards to survival prep, you can never really be "too prepared". Here are a few suggestions on how to obtain drinking water:
Water Purification Tablets
- These tablets contain purifying chemicals such as chlorine or iodine to destroy harmful organisms such as viruses, bacteria, cysts, and protozoa.
- They are fairly cheap and have proven to be effective at disinfecting water and making it safe to drink.
- While the instructions vary based on the brand, the tablets are still easy to use.
- Typically you strain the water using a filter, cheese cloth, or a t-shirt into a bowl/basin.
- Drop 1 to 2 tablets in the water and let it dissolve.
- Wait 30-40 minutes and then the water is safe drink.
- A relatively new way of obtaining drinking water is by using a water filtration straw. While LifeStraw is the most popular brand, there are other companies that create similar versions of the straw.
- LifeStraw removes virtually all waterborne bacteria, microplastics, and parasites using activated carbon and ion exchange.
- 1 LifeStraw filter is good for 4000 liters of water making it a very practical tool to have in your survival bag.
So let's say you had some preparations in place, but you've exhausted your supply. What to do next? We will talk about different ways to find and create your own water supply in our next article. Stay tuned!