Northridge, 9-11, Hurricane's Katrina and Rita, the flooding in Texas, or the fires in California; where do I start? When natural disaster or terrorism strikes, how safe is your drinking water supply? Most of us use some sort of filtration system for our drinking water at home. But the need for a portable device in an emergency or remote setting may arise to make water safer for consumption. Even water untouched in a remote wilderness may not be safe to drink due to contamination. Having a portable survival water purifier would make the necessity of drinkable water easier to obtain.
There are several types of portable water purifiers. There are drinking straw filters which are perfect for filtering water discreetly in a restaurant or hotel. Sports bottle purifiers are great for anywhere you'd need to get a drink of water with better taste and quality. Then you have the purifiers that are more apt to be found in an emergency kit. They resemble a small bicycle pump and get the job done with ease.
A portable survival water purifier that filters water at .2 microns will filter all bacteria, protozoa, fungi, cysts, E. coli and other parasites. It will also filter out chemically resistant Giardia, amoebic and shigella dysenteries, and pathogens causing typhoid and cholera.
When filtering is not possible there are other ways to make your water safer to drink. Boiling water kills harmful bacteria and contaminants. However, at higher elevations the boiling point of water drops and it will need to be heated longer to achieve the same results of purification.
There is also the process of chemical purification. Iodine may be added as a solution, granules, or as water purification tablets. Using iodine for drinking water purification is a light weight solution but is better than nothing at all. Camping stores sell iodine water purification kits that include a secondary treatment of ascorbic acid or Vitamin C. The iodine purification tablet is used first to purify the drinking water. The Vitamin C tablet is used secondarily to remove the taste of the iodine.
Many use chlorine bleach as a means to purify their drinking water. Chlorine based bleach may be added for emergencies. The measure for using bleach is two drops per quart of clear drinking water. Once the solution has been made, the bleach water must stand covered for 30 to 60 minutes before drinking. Afterward, the lid may be removed to allow the smell of the bleach to lessen before consumption. It must be noted here that Cryptosporidium and Giardia are not affected by bleach or iodine alone. Heating or boiling the water is still the best method for purification.
