How to Purify Dirty Water into Drinkable Water

Traveling in the back country or camping outdoors is not quite the same today as it once was. You can't simply drink water from a freshwater stream that you find, even if the water looks clear. The water could contain biological microorganisms or chemical pollutants that can make you sick, and a remote wilderness area is the last place you want to be ill. You'll need to purify any water you drink from a stream; there are several ways to do that.

Things You'll Need

• 2 cooking pots
• Iodine or chlorine tablets, non-expired
• Portable water filter
• Extra water filter cartridges
• Bandanna (for pre-filtering)
• Salt
• Lemonade or powdered vitamin C

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Instructions

• 1

  Determine which method of water treatment you're going to use. The methods include boiling, iodine or chlorine treatment, and filtration through a water filter.

• 2

  Find the cleanest, clearest water source available to you and pre-filter the water through your bandanna into a pot if there are particles in it; this way you won't ingest larger particles or clog your filter.

• 3

  Boiling method: Get your cooking pot, go to the stream, and fill it up. Take it back to the fire or portable stove and boil it for 30 minutes to kill any water-born organisms such as Giardia. To be safe, let the water boil fast for one minute to ensure complete sterility. Note, though, that this method will not remove chemical pollutants.

• 4

  Iodine or chlorine method: Go to the stream, gather your water in your cooking pot, and bring it back to camp. Add your tabs or liquid iodine drops to the water and swish it around with a spoon or pocket knife to aid in dissolving it. Look at the container for the iodine to determine how many drops per quart to use. Be sure your treatment chemicals have not expired (look for a date on the container), or they may not fully purify the water. Allow the water in the pot to sit for at least 30 minutes after adding your chemical to allow for complete purification. Start counting the 30 minutes after the tablet or liquid drops have dissolved. If the water is really cold, warm up the water in the Sun before adding the chemical or heat it up on the stove to 60 degrees F (16 degrees C) before treating it. The water may taste slightly objectionable after treatment, so add a pinch of salt per quart or add lemonade mix or 50 milligrams of vitamin C powder to make it taste better.

• 5

  Water filter method: Take your cooking pot down to the stream and collect a pot of water. Take it back to camp, put a bandanna over an empty pot, and pour the pot of water into the empty one through the bandanna to filter out any dirt or suspended particles. This method increases your filter's lifespan. Remove the bandanna. Insert the filter's collection tube into the pre-filtered pot and the filter output tube into your first water bottle. Begin pumping the filter handle to fill up your bottle. When the filter handle becomes more difficult to depress, it's time to replace your internal filter cartridge with a new one or remove it and clean it if you have a porcelain or reusable filter cartridge.