Woods3

Finding and Disinfecting Water

There are a few ways to find and collect water in the wild, and we’ll focus on that before we discuss filtering.
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Step 1) The easiest way to get water is by finding a stream, a river, or a lake – the real question is: how do I find a body of water in the wild?This all breaks down to observation; animals can always be found close to water sources as they need it to survive, while shrubbery and greenery are also more lush and more dense near water sources.Look for birds, as they often fly towards water, as well as insects – they usually congregate around fresh water! If possible, avoid lake water as still water usually has more bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
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Step 2) Rainwater and snow are your allies! You can easily boil snow down to water, while collecting rainwater may be a bit more difficult, but still a valid method of collecting water.A container of some sort is all you need to collect rainwater – bottles, kettles, pots, and if you don’t have that, you can improvise a container with tarp or any sort of plastic sheeting.
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Step 3) Condensation trapping is a difficult method, but it works. If you have a dark plastic sheet, wrap it loosely around a small plant or a tree branch. As the plant transpires water, it’ll collect on the inside of your plastic sheet – it won’t be much water, but without enough time you’ll at least have something! This is a great method of passive water collection and it doesn’t harm the plant.
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Step 4) Underground water sources are also an option, albeit a bit more difficult to tap into. If you dig a hole about half a meter (about 1.5 feet) deep in a muddy area, it might start filling up with muddy water – that means there’s an underground water source there. All you need to do now is filter it!
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Pro Tip

WHEN COLLECTING WATER FROM AN OUTDOOR SOURCE, LIKE A STREAM, USE A CLEAN CONTAINER, WASH YOUR HANDS BEFOREHAND, AND CHOOSE A SPOT NEAR THE SOURCE OR ON HIGHER ELEVATIONS AWAY FROM ANIMAL GRAZING SITES.

Now, when it comes to filtering, before we take a look at the methods, we have to talk about the entire “Don’t drink water in the wilderness before filtering it because there’s illness-inducing bacteria there!” myth!

Water in streams, lakes, and rivers is most definitely contaminated (to a degree), but it isn’t as nearly as dramatic as some people make it sound. You should always filter water before drinking it, but some experts and gurus insist that it’s better to dehydrate yourself than drink unfiltered water. Now that’s just an insane statement.

‍If it ever comes down to drinking unfiltered water or risking severe dehydration – drink! You are, at the end of the day, an animal, and you possess mechanisms that will successfully fight off some bacteria, parasites, and other microorganisms that might cause bodily damage. red this very topic in an interview with Dr. Troy Madsen, an emergency room physician. Here’s what he said: “If I were out somewhere and I needed water and I just felt like the thirst was going to affect my ability to get out of an area or hike out, I would drink the water. We're talking either about the immediate danger of severe dehydration versus the risk of an infection that's not going to hit you for one to two weeks, and that can typically be treated with antibiotics.”

To conclude – always filter your water, but if you can’t do it and you’re becoming severely dehydrated, drink unfiltered water.

Pro Tip

IF YOU SPOT A LOT OF ANIMALS DRINKING THE SAME WATER SOURCE, THAT USUALLY MEANS ITS SAFE!
ANIMALS WON'T RETURN TO A WATER SOURCE THAT MAKES THEM SICK.

Now, let’s learn how to filter and disinfect your water in the wild! The best thing you can do is bring a water filter with you whenever you go into the wild – this should be a regular component of your outdoor gear.

However, if you’re stuck in the wild without a water filter, you can improvise one yourself! Here’s how! We could describe any water filter as a tiny mesh that filters out anything larger than its holes – it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to mimic the fineness of industrially-made filters in the wild, but you can still filter something out. The simplest water filter you can make in the wild requires nothing more than a plastic bottle and a piece of cloth (or a coffee filter, but I doubt you brought that to the woods with you).
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Step 1) Cut the top of the bottle carefully and invert it, creating a funnel. The opening of the bottle, where the cap usually goes, should now be pointing at the bottom of the bottle from the inside.
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Step 2) Lay the cloth down at the bottom of the funnel.
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Step 3) In layers, lay down gravel and rocks you found close to the water source. The tiniest rocks and gravel should be at the bottom, with the larger ones at the top. Make sure to wash them in a stream before you use them. If you happen to have any charcoal, put it in too.
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Step 4) Slowly pour water through the filter – any dirt in the water will catch onto the rocks!

This is pretty much as good as it gets under the circumstances. This would work even better if you had charcoal tablets or a really fine mesh.

‍After filtering your water, you should boil it – in case you don’t have a kettle or a pot, use any type of container that won’t melt or contaminate water when exposed to high temperatures, such as a tin can. The general rule of thumb is to boil water for at least 10 minutes before drinking it.

No matter how thirsty you are, you should never drink:

urine
blood
salt or brackish waters
sea ice (it's salty)
fish juices