You’re out camping or hiking and the sun is hot and you’re getting thirsty. Can you drink water from a stream, river or pond and not get sick? Maybe you’re at a campground, what about the water from the spigots at a campground? Can you drink that water and not get sick? The answers to both questions are the same. Yes you can drink water from a pond, river, stream and those spigots at the campground and not get sick. You can also fall 20,000 feet and live, as Alan Magee did when he was blown out of his B-17 on a mission over France in 1943. I don’t want to roll the dice and take a chance, do you?
The things you have to get rid of that might be in the water are protozoa, bacteria and viruses. There are 3 ways to clean your water.
- Boil your water: This method will kill everything. You are good to go. This method has obvious drawbacks for the hiker. You have to have a way to heat it, you have to have something to put it in while you boil it and then you have to let it cool before you can drink it.
- Water Filter: There are many water filters, portable water filters, base camp water filters that are available from $30 all the way up to a few hundred dollars. They work by filtering out bacteria and protozoa. These nasty things are really small, protozoa are .2 – .15 microns, bacteria are .2 – .5 microns and viruses can be as small as .02 microns. So you need a filter that has an absolute pore size of .2 microns. You can get by with a .3 or .4 but you can fall 20,000 feet….you know. Why take the chance. To get rid of viruses some water filters may use iodine also.
- Purifier: Purifiers use chemicals to eliminate the nasties. Iodine is one and there are also tablets made by a few companies that will kill the viruses and bacteria. One problem is that they can alter the taste of the water. The other problem is you have to wait. You can use a charcoal filter to get rid of some of the taste, but you have to let the chemicals work for a while before you can drink it.
And depending where you are hiking or camping has an effect on what kind you need. Viruses come from people so if you’re near a populated area, viruses can be a big concern. Filters clog, so you’ll need to have replacement parts. Tablets take time to work as does boiling the water. They all have advantages and disadvantages so the type of camping and hiking you do and the location will play a part in your decision.
