Water purification.

[birdman6660]

ok guys .. even though I have a huge supply of very clean water available to me .. what is the best filter system out there for a woods camp should I need it ?

[Rick]

How long will you need it for and how many people?

[birdman6660]

How long will you need it for and how many people?

7 people and maybe a 3 year max .. all depends i guess on how long it ttakes fore things to come back and turn around

[Wildthang]

I use coffee filters for pre filters, and it cleans up the water pretty good, which in turn protects your filter from the gunk! I always keep around 10 cone shaped coffee filters in my BOB.
But most of the time I just drink dirty water cause I'm so tough

[Rick]

You won't find a filter that will cover that many people that long. That's well over 7600 gallons of water! I think you'd be better off building your own system similar to what Pict built in Brazil.

Start at post 29
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...r-Filter/page2

The whole thread is about homemade water filters but post 29 is the one he uses at home and post 45 talks about one he built at camp.

He's on the Colhane Channel on YouTube:

Here's the little filter he shows in Post 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8VQk...YlC8NA&lf=plcp


And a larger camp filter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88dcw...YlC8NA&lf=plcp

Just remember that Clorox or Sodium Hypochlorite is only viable for about a year so you can't use it the entire 3 years that you envision.

[Zen buds]

Not true. You can't build an immunity to Giardia, Shigella, Salmonella or any of the other water borne "bugs" just like you can't build an immunity to heavy metals and other polution. There are people all over the world that do not have access to clean water, Mexico included.

According to UNICEF, "About 4 billion cases of diarrhea per year cause 1.8 million deaths, over 90 per cent of them (1.6 million) among children under five."

http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_wes_related.html

It's an every day event in Mexico so you don't hear about it. It's a rarity in advanced countries so when it happens it makes the news.

Not true.. mexicans do drink the water and do not get sick...

[Rick]

I've never talked to anyone from Mexico that drinks tap water. They all drink bottled water. You can not develop immunity to things like cysts, protozoa or nematode larvae. If you ingest them the odds are very good you are going to get sick. Just brushing your teeth with tainted water will do it, too.

[Zen buds]

AMA) "There is currently no drug that can cure cryptosporidiosis. People with competent immune systems will recover on their own and appear to develop some immunity to sub-sequent infections"

AEMTEK) "Consumption of contaminated water can cause severe, sometimes lethal medical conditions, particularly in small children and people with compromised immunity."

Univ. of Florida) "People with healthy immune systems are usually ill with cryptosporidiosis for several days but rarely more than two weeks. Some infected individuals may not even get sick."

Backpacker magazine has done some great articles about this... you should check them out.

[Zen buds]

here is a good article done by the Wilderness Education Association - www.weainfo.org/en/art/26/

[Rick]

Uncle. You win. Drink away.