Primitive Water Purification Techniques

In this age of fertilizers, pesticides, and chemical waste, even the purest-looking mountain stream may be contaminated with dangerous chemicals that can harm your body and make you sick. Add in the traditional contaminants of bacteria, viruses, and animal wastes, and you will no doubt conclude that trying to drink water found in the wilderness without purification is not only unwise, but near suicidal.

Water purification methods can be either modern or primitive, and the basic rule to follow is that the more primitive a method, the more time and energy it will take. Because of this, it is always wise when travelling in the outdoors to carry some modern method of purification.

These methods can be in the form of either chemical purifiers, such as the time-tested iodine droplets added to a sample of water, or filters, which can screw onto the top of a water bottle and purify/filter a liter of water in five minutes.

Unfortunately, it is quite likely that you will find yourself in a situation where you have no option but to resort to primitive methods, which usually means boiling and filtration.

Let's start with filtration, which you can actually do without if you need to. However, for muddy water it is a good idea. You can improvise a filter by taking the leg from a pair of trousers and tying off the leg of it. Pour the water in and let it drip out into a container below the leg. You can improve this filter by adding in charcoal, if you happen to have some.

Next, you need to boil your water. This is a bit trickier, because it requires a fire, and if you are not careful, you will end up burning your water container by placing it directly on the fire. The solution is to set a few rocks in the fire and allow it to heat them up, and then to place them in the container with your water.

But wait -- what container? How are you going to get a water container in the middle of the wilderness? The answer is - not easily. If you are lucky, you can find a natural depression in a tree or a rock that form a basin. If you are not lucky, you will have to improvise. You can burn out a piece of a log, use an animal skin (be very careful when skinning the animal!) or you can fashion one out of tree bark.

Once you have a container, heat up your rocks, use green sticks to pick them up, and put them in the water container. If the rocks cool down, take them out and put in new ones. This is also a good method of improvised cooking. You can use it to make soups or stews.

So, while to a person who has no experience, it may seem impossible to secure your own safe water in the wilderness, it is actually not as hard as it might seem. However, the key to success in these techniques is practice. Practice now, and then when you are actually in trouble these techniques will come to you naturally.