I Wrote A Comprehensive Water Survival Guide

For all people, especially those in Jackson

It’s been recently reported in the city of Jackson in Mississippi, a water pump has entirely failed leaving 150,000 people without water… reportedly indefinitely. The Daily Beagle is here to the rescue with a Comprehensive Water Survival Guide!

Different Water Treatment Methods Serve Different Purposes

So the first question anyone who goes into water survival asks is ‘what method of water treatment is best?’ - there is no one universal ‘best’ treatment method. Each method applies to very specific situations.

So don’t buy with a ‘winner takes all’ mindset, but buy with the specific issues you’re facing. In the case of Jackson, it will most likely be biological contaminants (E. Coli, Chlorea, parasites, spores etc) and chemical contaminants (lead, copper, iron oxide, etc).

What Water Treatment Methods Are There And What Purposes Do They Serve?

So, just to preface, none of these are necessarily a ‘complete’ water treatment system, but they are puzzle pieces allowing you to construct or design your own system. The purposes here won’t be a complete list, but the most common.

Passive

Silver

Silver is an antibacterial agent. Historically, before refrigerators were invented, people put silver coins into milk jugs and bottles to help prevent the milk spoiling. The milk industry reinvestigated this and found it helped prevent the bacteria that spoil milk. Hospitals use silver in conjunction with copper (also an antibacterial, but can be toxic if consumed in too high quantities).

The effect silver exerts is known as the “Oligodynamic effect”. Ever-wrong Wikipedia maintains a list of metals that exhibit this effect, however be aware some metals are toxic and deadly to humans.

The limitations here are, silver is expensive, and it is a surface-area effect, so any parts of the water not touching it, aren’t going to be purified. And of course, it only works on microbes like bacteria, mold and so on.

Solar Distiller

This works using heat from the sun to cause an evaporative process involving condensation. This particular method does not involve boiling the water, and there are a wide variety of custom setups.

Solar distillers have the advantage of not requiring any electrical power, but they are limited to the weather and seasons (it will doubtful work in winter with all the water frozen). Solar distillers are also very slow at producing water, and whilst a sizeable unit can produce enough to drink, it may not produce enough for things like washing, cleaning or cooking.

Distillation is one of the few methods that can remove things like radioactive particles (note: the waste run-off will be very radioactive) and fluoride.

Note, distillers are so good at removing almost everything, that the distilled water will actually be toxic to you, because it will leech electrolytes out of your body when drunk, so you need to add a small amount of minerals back into the distiller water. Some people add a small amount of salt.

It is strongly advised you treat run-off waste from distillers as ‘black water’ (as opposed to grey water), too toxic to use for anything.

Solar distillers have the downside of requiring regular cleaning of the glass screen to prevent build-up of either muck on the outside, or algae growth on the inside. Some people may add sterilising chemicals to the water being distilled to prevent bacterial and algae growth in the unit for this reason, although not all do.

Pre-Filtration

Pre-filtration isn’t a filter method by itself, however it is a means of preparing low quality, dirty water in such a way it reduces the impact on the filter system filtering the water. This typically applies to river water where the currents and forces churn up dirt into the water.

Credit: hmgawater.ca

This is via a process known as ‘settling’, where murky water is left in a jar to settle over several hours, with dirt settling at the bottom due to gravity. What you can then do is carefully pour out the water from the top of the jar into another water container to be filtered, leaving as much sediment - the dirt at the bottom - behind in the jar.

This helps reduce the sediment entering your water filtration system and greatly expands the lifetime of the filter. It does not render the water safe, it only removes particles that would otherwise be wasted clogging up your water filter.

Filtration

There are many different types of filtration system (sand, microfibre, membrane, etc), with differing types of design (portable, gravity, pumpfed, powered etc), which are too many to list, so I’ll give you the low-down on how to choose instead.

Note: Survival water filters are not to be confused with kitchen top water “filters” that only reduce EG calcium in water. Survival water filters are designed for adverse water conditions, kitchen top water “filters” used as a middle-class fancy are not. Do not buy the first thing you see - do your research!

Pore Size Is Important

Firstly, your main concern is the pore size of a filter. Essentially, pores act like doors, where the goal is to make a door so small, larger things can’t fit through, whilst water can. Usually, pore size is determined on the nano-scale, and different filters will have different ratings (be sure to check the ratings are certified by a lab, and isn’t some cheap Chinese knockoff).

Finer pore sizes cost more to make. Bigger pore sizes allow larger threats to get through. You want to assess what threats (EG, spores, parasites, bacteria, viral material, etc) are in your water, select the smallest threat, and then find a pore size rating smaller than the threat.

Different Filters Achieve Different Goals

Some filters may come with ‘activated charcoal’ (alt. activated carbon) in them. Activated charcoal is used to try to neutralise chemical threats in the unfiltered water. Activated charcoal may also neutralise some biological threats as well, however the main goal is removing poisons and toxins.

Even so, some filters may still not remove all toxins, such as fluoride. Most will claim to, but few actually do. Even the ones that do, often only reduce the fluoride, they do not completely remove it. There are other chemicals and elements filters may not be able to remove.

Filters based pore-sizes are primarily aimed to remove things like spores, parasites, bacteria, and large pieces of dirt. They usually make some assumptions about water source, such as relatively clear forest river water, or well water. Filters are not designed to handle seawater, and will clog up easily and become damaged.

Choose A Filter Product For Your Usage Goals

The most frustrating thing you may find about water filters is usage. Portable, handheld filters are convenient from an ‘anywhere’ standpoint, but they become inconvenient from a daily filtration standpoint as you have to manually keep pumping or squeezing or drinking water through - which is problematic if you’re trying to create enough water to boil vegetables in a saucepan.

Filtering material often has to be changed in sand filters, for example, contaminants eventually clog up the sand filter, so the filter has to be taken offline, the sand removed, and replaced with fresh sand. Likewise for charcoal filters.

Electric pump filters are ‘okay’, but they become dependent upon you maintaining an electricity source, which, if society has collapsed to the point water isn’t functional, your electricity is probably out too. Electrical pumps also add an additional failure point.

Most people will want gravity fed filters, as they are a good compromise between the various issues. Being gravity fed, they’re not constrained to electrical power, and they also only require manual power in being filled up. You may find the filling of them in a daily basis annoying, but smarter people may be able to affix a hose to their tap and fill up the unit that way,

You may find, finding somewhere to put a gravity bag or similar up is the most difficult part in smaller buildings. You will also have to clean the pipes and container from time-to-time of any biofilm build-up.

Chemical

Iodine

Iodine drops are used to kill off bacteria, viruses, and inactivate spores and kill parasites. Iodine drops are less common these days, as it is very easy to get iodine poisoning if it isn’t dilute enough, and get disease poisoning if it is too dilute.

Iodine is also typically used to prevent absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid.

Chlorine Dioxide

Chlorine Dioxide tablets are the replacement for iodine drops and tablets, and is commonly used to treat tap water. Chlorine Dioxide is a biocide, meaning it will kill most forms of bacteria, algae, fungal spores, parasites and more. It’s close and more toxic cousin, chlorine, is used to treat swimming pools. It is typically what gives water it’s ‘metallic’ taste.

Chlorine Dioxide is used as it is less toxic to the human body compared to iodine. It is still toxic in large amounts, hence the dilution ratios required, but tablets typically come with instructions.

It will not remove chemical contaminants like aluminium, lead, fluoride, copper or even radioactive waste, and so is unsuitable for water with toxic chemicals in them.

Active

Boiling

This is typically the go-to for many people who don’t understand water treatment. Boiling will kill things like bacteria and viruses, and will inactivate spores and kill parasites, but it will not remove any chemical contaminants. In-fact, it will slightly concentrate them, making chemicals in water slightly more toxic.

Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis uses pressure to force clean water out of a brine - typically seawater - solution, outputting a very concentrated brine solution as waste, and producing a clean water solution. It will filter out most - but not necessarily all - chemical contaminants, and as a result it often filters out bacteria and other life. Typically brine solutions are too toxic for most forms of life to live in anyway.

Filtration is such that minerals may have to be re-added to the water, although it varies depending on situation. Reverse Osmosis is usually the cheapest when it comes to large scale production. Reverse Osmosis filters do have to be changed out over time, and pumps can burn out after some time.

These are most commonly used aboard seagoing vessels to produce clean drinking water for the ship.

Quirky

This section is described as quirky, as the methods listed may prove unreliable, problematic or difficult to use, and thus, are not recommended for use. They’re detailed to let the reader know the issues and the whys.

UV

UV light (alt. Ultraviolet light) - specifically, UVC - is good at killing life. All kinds of life. Including human. Seconds of exposure to UVC can in-fact, damage your eyes, which is why this method is rarely used.

Additionally, in tests, it was found particles like dirt, or muddy water, can block UV light from reaching bacteria, viral matter inside the container, meaning it may leave areas of contamination.

It also consumes a lot of electricity (compared to water pumps), and can easily burn skin. UVC itself will also produce Ozone (O3 gas) which is toxic to breathe in.

Additionally, some scam artists will propose leaving jars of water out in sunlight to use the sun’s rays (which contain Ultraviolet Light, or UV rays) to ‘purify the water’, but this is, frankly, complete bollocks. The sunlight actually drives algae growth - which is why most water barrels have an opaque (non-transparent) surface that is dark, to prevent sunlight from getting in.

Algae itself produces a toxin, which makes this method particularly useless. Besides, solar distillers use solar heat to produce a much more effective outcome.

Electrolysis

Electrolysis, if done right with salt and water, will potentially produce hypochlorite bleach. It can also produce toxic gases such as chlorine, explosive gases like hydrogen, and should only be done in a well ventilated area, which is why it isn’t done for water filtration.

Usually labs use it as a way of producing disinfecting bleach for use on lab work surfaces to kill bacteria. It is a means of generating hypochlorite bleach for the next method…

Household Bleach

An alternative to Chlorine Dioxide - which I don’t recommend for use as it is only used in desperate last ditch scenarios, and requires careful dilution amounts which I admit I’m not qualified to give.

It is the use of very small amounts of pure hypchlorite bleach to disinfect water. Be aware that most store brand bleaches will have other chemicals in them, and are thus unsafe for use, and the likelihood of finding a pure hypochlorite bleach in a store is low, which is why this isn’t typically done, save for poorer countries.

Dehumifier

Dehumifiers are capable of producing low quantities of water out of air using electricity. Before you jump up and say “aha!” and imagine infinity water being pulled out of the air, be aware that they produce very little water (a small portable 12v unit would only produce roughly a 330ml bottle of water every 3 days), and are very energy intensive, and do not work very well in dry air environments.

Although the water they initially produce is technically distilled, because it sits around so long in a container, it is exposed to all the dirt and contaminants of the air, so the water from it is less than ideal, and you may still need to add minerals to the water anyway.

In terms of electricity-to-water cost, they’re not worth it compared to pump filtration systems, and they’re impractical for water survival purposes.

Tree bags (‘Transpiration Bags’)

Plants transpire water out of their leaves. A transpiration bag, is basically a transparent bag wrapped around parts of, for example, a tree, and the tree is allowed to transpire water.

It is a quirky method, because there is a risk of poisoning if used on toxic plants, as well as any associated allergies or other issues. It is particularly niche because like dehumifiers, it only yields very small amounts of water from a plant.

It isn’t a ‘true’ water filtration method, but it is a way to produce water that is likely cleaner than, say, a swamp, that can ultimately be more easily filtered. It is impractical as it requires constant adjustment, sunlight, and only produces small amounts of water taking hours. If the bag is left on the tree branches for too long, it will prevent photosynthesis to that part of the branch(es) and it will die.

Solar Still

Not to be confused with a solar distillery, although it works via similar methods with condensation, a solar still is an impromptu piece of kit dug into the ground, using very primitive building materials for people in a survival situation.

Usually, the sweat expended in building such a unit makes the water it returns via the unit minimal. Sometimes the units can have water added to the outside of the collector to add moisture to distill, however these units are often impractical, vulnerable to flooding, insects, high winds moving components around, and other issues that make them impractical for water filtration.

What Water Treatment Methods Should You Pick?

The ideal choice depends on two factors - the water source and the water threats.

It is often too costly and complex to have a system that ‘does it all’, so you only want systems tailored to the threats in your water. You need to first identify the threats in the water - and the threats you anticipate.

Water source also dictates what methods you use as well. So, seawater practically mandates a Reverse Osmosis system. Murky swamp or city river water practically requires both pre-filtration (to get rid of the excessive particulates), systems for removing or neutralising chemicals as there are toxins and biotoxins, and filtration to remove the cystospores, bacteria, parasites etc.

That is however choices that are ideal. Realistically, however, people are constrained by their budgets and particular living arrangements. Having some water treatment methods is better than none at all.

In these circumstances, you can either: improve your water treatment, or improve your water source.

What About Rainwater?

I’ve purposefully avoided this because rainwater is highly variable in quality, and isn’t as pure as most people think - especially depending on water collection and storage methods.

For example, the atmosphere is often contaminated with pollution such as aluminium, and if there’s a radioactive fallout event, it will also contaminate rain for a while. How long is a while? Depends on a variety of factors including wind speed, wind direction, humidity, moisture, half-life of the radioactive material and more.

Even in non-fallout situations it is problematic. It might be cleaner than the swamp water, but it is also exposed to bird faecal matter, especially if it is collected off of the roof of a house where birds typically poop. Bird poop, of course, contains disease, as does the moss, decaying leaves and other nasties.

Rainwater is in theory ‘as clean as’ the environment it is collected from - except even then it isn’t, due to aircraft, airplanes and their pollution, plus wind blowing in extra from nearby regions. You shouldn’t drink rainwater directly unless it is some desperate ‘lost at sea’ type situation where you’re far from any country and have no other cleaner water.

You can however treat rainwater, but I wouldn’t be able to advise on risks as it is very region and weather dependent. The main risks are pollution in the air, contaminants on the collectors, and contaminants in the storage unit.

No Method Is Perfect

But hopefully this article has given you some ideas on different water survival options you can pursue if you ever face a situation like that of the city of Jackson in Mississipi.

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