January 3, 2020

By Richard Douglas

Water helps everything grow and thrive – including bacteria, viruses,
and parasites!
Water-related illness is a huge concern, especially for the young and the old, killing
nearly 3.4 million people each year. And once you’re sick, staying hydrated while you’re
“getting sick” is a massive challenge as-is, which becomes that much greater when
SHTF.
Common symptoms from drinking contaminated water are “Montezuma’s Revenge,”
diarrhea, vomiting, cramps. An E coli infection can be fatal and kills here in the US each
year (usually through uncooked meat).
Staying hydrated while your body deals with these contaminants is a real challenge
because you’re pooping and puking all your water up. When SHTF and water supplies
are in limited, dehydration is a serious threat to your health.
For example, I visited Egypt a couple years back to tour the country. Did a bit of hunting with my .338 Lapua rifle which was equipped with a nice long range scope. But while I was there, I got REALLY sick from contaminated water.”

But while I was there, I got REALLY
sick from contaminated water. The only way I can describe the feeling is to imagine
eating broken shards of glass. And then setting the shards of glass on fire. It felt like my guts were being cut apart, and nothing helped. It lasted several days – even though I
was taking a very strong antibiotic for it – and basically took me out of commission; I
needed a bathroom OFTEN!
In a SHTF scenario without an antibiotic, good hydration, and a bathroom, I’d have been in some serious trouble. Knowing how to purify water adds to the confident mindset
needed to survive. Here’s a list of what you need to treat, and how. Below this list are
more detailed instructions on how to use these treatment methods to purify water most effectively.
The Bad Guys
The greatest source of water contaminants is a fecal waste. Everybody poops, and it
takes very little fecal waste to make water undrinkable. All of these microbes come from
human and/or animal fecal waste:

Protozoa – several types, including:
● Cryptosporidium
● Giardia lamblia
Boiling kills these bugs. Iodine or chlorine does not. Filtration must have a “cyst
reduction” rated filter, and then is effective.
Bacteria – including:
● Campylobacter
● Salmonella
● Shigella
● E. coli
Boil these bugs to death! Iodine or chlorine will kill these too. Filtration only has
“moderate” success with removing these.
Viruses – including:
● Enterovirus
● Hepatitis A
● Norovirus
● Rotavirus
Filtration will NOT kill viruses! Iodine or chlorine is effective at killing viruses. Here’s a
list of how to use these treatment methods most effectively.
Method #1: Boiling
The oldest method for making water safe to drink is by boiling.
Keeping water at 165 …