“Water, Water, Everywhere....”

“But not a drop to drink!”  This often quoted line from the Rime of the Ancient mariner is often true in a survival scenario.  Knowing how to find water and how to filter and purify it to make it potable (safe to drink) is truly a skill worth developing.  Next to fire starting, having clean water for drinking, sanitation and cooking is one of the most important skills on which you can focus.

It is important to know what is upstream from you when you are getting water out of a river, creek or stream.  You should also be aware of contaminants in ponds, lakes and other bodies of water as well.  Of course, in the above mentioned quote, the Ancient Mariner was referring to the salt water in the ocean, which your body cannot process and which will cause death if too much is consumed.

If you are shipwrecked on a desert island or if you are near coastal areas, having a high quality desalinization pump like those designed for life rafts or a good salt water solar still is an absolute necessity for your preparations.  But if you live inland, then a high quality hand pump water filter is usually all you need.  Most of what you need to filter out is bacteria and the viruses and organisms like Giardia and Cryptosporidia, both of which will make you sick after a couple of days with serious diarrhea. Sometimes, if the water has high levels of turbidity, (debris) you will need to put some kind of a screen or cloth over the water intake of your pump (you can use a handkerchief or clean sock etc.) to make your filter last longer and help keep it from clogging up as soon.

Always pay attention to how many gallons/liters of water your pump will process before you purchase it.  Some of the smaller straw type filters selling for about $10.00 are only good for about 20 gallons before replacement.  Some like the Life Straw which sell for about $20.00 have a lot of press, but they are estimated to e only good for about 264 gallons of filtration before replacement.  A much better option, in my opinion, is the Sawyer brand of water filters.  For about $20.00 you can get a unit that filters approximately 100,000 gallons of water and only weighs 2 oz!  For about $30.00, Sawyer makes a unit that will filter approximately 1,000,000 gallons of water!  Yes, you read that right, one million gallons of clean, drinking water.  And the entire system only weighs 3 oz!  Please understand that these filters will not filter out heavy metal contamination and that they are filters not purifiers.  For that you will need a much more expensive unit such as the Katydyn Pocket water filter which retails for upwards of $300.00 and will filter and purify approximately 12,000 gallons of water per replaceable filter.  You will need to add the carbon filter or prefilter to it for complete purification as well as filtration.  It will even filter out radioactive particles in your water.  If you had to go long term in a survival situation, the Katydyn Pocket would be hard to beat.

You can drink all the water in the world and yet still be thirsty.  When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well in Samaria, he made a similar point.  The water (spiritual things) of this world cannot satisfy.  Jesus told her and tells us, that we need to have a river of life flowing out from our innermost being and that once having drunk of this water, we will never thirst again (for the earthly things of this world)!  How can you be satisfied with living water from the inside and never thirst again?  Give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will find that He truly satisfies!  You will no longer be chasing the things of this world, but you will take great pleasure in seeking the Presence of God and the welfare of others.  May you drink deeply of this water today!

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PS.  Friend us at our Facebook Page – WayPoint Survival.  You can also check out my other websites where you can set up training for many of these skills at www.waypointsurvival.com and look at and order my custom knives at www.benderknifeworks.com.

James B