Cool water.
And way up there He'll hear our prayer and show us where there's water,
Cool clear water."
It is high time that I blogged about water (actually, high time that I blogged here at all as I was on a long winter hiatus it seems). With the seemingly limitless and oh so convenient access to water in most of our daily lives, it's relative priority tends to wane into the background clutter of our lives. But make no mistake... water is what life is all about. It is in fact the essential element of civilization. In nature, not just during desperate survival situations, there are few things I can think of more important than water to humans, perhaps atmosphere at STP, gravity with planetary mass, a delicate temperature zone (distance from sun, seasonal tilt of planet), radiation protection (i.e. Van Allen Belts).
So what are the limits? Like, if you were trapped under rubble or in an open lifeboat in the middle of the ocean and had no access to potable water, how long could you survive. The definitive answer varies from human to human. Incredible feats of endurance have been recorded among desert Bedouins, Kalahari bushmen, and Australian aboriginals, cultures that exist in hot arid biomes. I've also heard of Tibetan monks that meditate for weeks. But for the average person, the human limit seems to be about 3 days. The process of dying from dehydration (thirst) is one of the most agonizingly painful and harrowing ordeals that can be experienced by man. The body is a machine, and almost every physiological process right down to the cellular level involves water, so if water is not available, systems start to shutdown, involuntarily. We've seen marathon runners and Iron-man triathletes that dehydrate and lose muscular and neurological control. Dementia effects severely dehydrated people and judgment is impaired, but in dire consequences, eventually the decision whether to drink urine, seawater, or blood comes up. I will discuss those options separately. Note: there are documented cases of survival beyond 3 days without water, but usually with permanent debilitating damage to organ systems (liver and renal failure, weakened cardiac muscles). Paradoxically, infants are among the most resilient as their bodies adapt and shutdown critical systems in times of deprivation. Infants have been pulled from the rubble of earthquakes and survived as long as a week after they had been buried.
For organization, I've divided this HUGE topic into 3 main categories/strategies: 1) finding or securing a source of water, and making it potable 2) storing water, after collecting or generating it and finally 3) carrying water when it becomes necessary to move.
Especially in the case of disaster (natural or manmade), once other priorities have been secured, one should think about short term and long term sources of water. Water for bodily hydration (drinking) is of course the primary concern, but remember the myriad secondary uses of water (cooking, sterilizing, cleaning, washing, hygiene, fire fighting, agriculture, etc.). In short term survival, such considerations may seem frivolous, but in the longer term situations these secondary considerations become increasingly important. One may avoid death by thirst, but may later die from infection or contamination if one ignores simple hygiene.
Faucets and taps are what we look to first for our water in "civilized" areas, but many types of disasters can disrupt the flow. Damaged or contaminated sources (dams, reservoirs, aqueducts), damaged or blocked pipes and water conduits, insufficient water or water pressure due to other priorities or peak demand, water pumping stations inoperative, maybe even deliberate shut-offs for public rationing or exigent circumstance. Part of my post-earthquake drill (here in California) has always been to fill up my bath tub and fill my empty pitchers and containers with water and if possible put some in the freezer. I'll blog more about this "earthquake drill" later in a separate article.
I think that I've mentioned this many times before, but a plastic bag, especially a tough little Zip-Loc, is an amazingly useful survival tool. But really, any watertight plastic bag (shopping, garbage, food storage, even garment and tarps) are great survival assets. Again, I plan to blog about this separately, but plastic bags or membranes have myriad uses when some imagination is applied. In the category of water alone, consider storage, portability, collecting, channeling and conduits, solar distilleries, and lining other more fragile or non-waterproof containers.
I know where my building's water heater tank is, which can be drained for potable water. A decorative fountain out front and a swimming pool in the back can serve as a source of potable "emergency" water in pinch. Part of my earthquake kit includes several gallon jugs of chlorine bleach for treating water, in addition to my Katydyne water filter system that I use for camping. Several blocks away, there is even a freshwater creek that runs through my neighbourhood which I might consider a water source of last resort (if I couldn't beg, borrow or steal from some other source). I will mention that there is a way one can make use of contaminated (like tainted with gasoline) or brackish water sources if the circumstances are dire. The large colon absorbs limited quantities of water into the body without absorbing contaminants (one of it's functions during digestion) so it is possible to hydrate by enema if one had the tools and knowledge. Also, if one has the knowledge and means, one can alternately hydrate intravenously.
I almost forgot to mention that along with drinking ample water try not to overlook the effects of perspiring and causing an imbalance in electrolytes. Under heavy exertion, taking a salt pill with every quart of water helps to retain water and keeps electrolyte levels in balance.
In the wilderness or survival situation consider that water always travels downhill or downstream with gravity. Therefore, look for more water sources to be found in draws, valleys, ravines, and depressions. Plantlife and trees are a strong indicator of water and are sometimes a source of water themselves, like water vines in the jungle, or rainwater or dew on leaves, collected in hollows, or condensate from plastic bags around branches. Even in arid climates, water may flow underground especially in depressions, riverbeds, and where telltale lines of vegetation grow. I've heard an apocryphal bush tale that all other animals follow the elephants (because supposedly they can smell subterranean water and will make for muddy watering holes in drought).
If one has the means, a private, secure, ample, readily available source of water is the optimum situation, a body of water, lakes, rivers, Artesian sources, a spring, a well, a cistern, or large water tank. Secondarily, more elaborate, technological means of trapping or extracting water are useful, like a rooftop rainwater trapping system, solar condensers, desalinization systems, and geo-thermal iceberg melters. I suppose the ultimate along this line would be like a NASA style Hydrogen Fuel Cell system which generates power and leaves behind molecular oxygen and pure distilled water as by-products.
Condensate is a ready source of pure drinking water, literally from the air. Morning dew and water that collects on the smooth waxy surfaces of plants as the temperature changes is available in almost any biome, even arid deserts. Putting a plastic bag around a branch of a plant will condense water vapour in the air and that which escapes from the plant also. This same concept can be used in the "solar still" (digging a hole, stretching plastic over it, with a container in the center to collect the condensate that forms on the inside). The efficiency of the still increases with exposure to the sun, and the amount of base moisture in the hole, the soil, foliage within, and even contaminated sources, like urine or seawater. What will condense out is pure distilled water, albeit in small quantities. Therefore making multiple stills is important.
Whatever your water source, if it is exposed to open air (not sealed or distilled) one can assume that source as possibly contaminated with micro-organisms, pollutants/particulates, and/or by-products of corrosion from the transmission mode (pipes). I am not a germophobe, but I prefer whenever feasible to drink only filtered water. Now what this means varies from city to city, but I happen to live in a city which has filtered (and carefully tested and monitored) water right from the tap. Therefore, I only consider the contaminants between the city filtering and the pipes leading to my domicile. I use a simple Brita water filter for my drinking water. For emergency back-up and camping use, I have a good top of the line portable Katydyne water filter system. My stored water is all namebrand bottled water, which is filtered water. Nothing more, nothing less. It amazes me what people pay for water these days. Note: about the only premium bottled water that I can genuinely taste/detect a difference is so-called Fiji water. I can take a blind taste test and find Fiji water readily. It is somehow... smoother, like lower viscosity. My free endorsement for Fiji water... LOL.
Boiling water of course is the age-old method for making water potable. But it has the slight drawback of being energy-intensive (fuel) and somewhat of an elaborate process (heating, boiling, cooling, storing), esp in a survival shelter. Sometimes therefore, chemical purification is more convenient. The drawback here is the detectable chemical taste and smell. I've always carried a tiny vial of Iodine water purification tablets in my survival kit since my Army days as a method of last resort. A part of every family/home earthquake disaster survival kit should be a gallon jug of chorine bleach. Chlorine has many uses in survival, but one of the most important is the ability to chemically purify large quantities of questionable water. Water purified by chemical means can be made more palatable by powdered flavourings, like iced tea.
Another purification method which I will mention briefly is the use of Ultra Violet light, mostly the handy UV wand that is currently in vogue. Now, I have field tested this method and I have had no ill effects, however, there is this annoying lack of complete confidence in this method. Supposedly swirling this lighted wand around in a water bottle for about a minute kills all the cooties and makes it safe to drink. But unlike other methods, filtering, boiling, adding chemicals, the UV wand method seems like a leap of faith that it worked. There is no confirmation. Plus, because it is an electronic light, the wand works best at full battery strength. As it reaches the end of it's battery life, I would presume that it gets less efficient. So if it may or may not kill 90% of the microbes, then there may come a time when the 10% of surviving microbes gives one debilitating dysentery right in the middle of a survival situation. Is it worth the gamble? I would only recommend the UV wand as a back-up method to use along with other methods.
Some survivalists opt to store water in large quantities, like in 55 gallon drums or military style 5 gallon "jerry" cans or jugs. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this strategy, especially for those in larger family groups and plan to survive in place (not being mobile). But I've always been of the "don't put your eggs into one basket" school of thought when it comes to survival. As resource wasteful as this may seem, I believe in keeping supplies/storing water in as many separate little containers as possible. Even in quantity, I'd rather keep my water in 1000 separate half liter water bottles than a single 500 liter drum. Why? far less risk of contamination/cross-contamination, less risk of total loss, more portability/adaptability, more options for immediate/secondary uses (freezing, flavouring, re-using, even recycling the containers).
Probably from my military indoctrination, I've habitually carried a "canteen" around with me, in civilian life, a water bottle. I am not very particular about my water bottles. I don't care if it is a re-used Pepsi bottle, clear Evian type bottle, a Lexan Nalgene bottle, or one of those currently popular lined aluminum or steel bottles. There are some key desirable features of course, but for the most part as long as the bottle holds water, is relatively clean and is refillable, it will suffice for me. Clear is good so that the contents/remaining contents can be seen. Durability is nice for rugged use. Graduations are helpful for rationing and monitoring intake. Wide mouth is desirable for hearty, satisfying gulping. "Taste-free" and non-reactive material/lining material is desirable (metal/plastic taste, BPA).
I was an early adopter of the "Camelback" concept and in fact own several of their earliest models. I embraced the concept and still believe there are many tangible advantages to the water bag and drinking tube system, among them, ergonomic carrying, hands-free/on-the-go hydration, decrease in volume of bladder as water is consumed, even secondary uses as a flotation device if necessary. In the end however, after about a decade of actual use, I have all but abandoned the concept and returned to using mostly Lexan water bottles, and keeping my Camelbaks for back-up and emergency use. Like what are the disadvantages of Camelbaks? Well, because water must be sucked through a long straw, a Camelbak is a demand system as opposed to water pouring freely with gravity into one's mouth. It makes a qualitative difference in hydration satisfaction IMO. Because you really cannot see exactly how much you are drinking, there is a tendency to (at least for me) to drink less. I've found that I tend to de-hydrate myself (coming home with half a bladder full) when I use the Camelbak. I tend to hesitate to refill the Camelbak bladder mid-hike or mid-expedition, not only because of the inconvenience of extracting the bladder out of my pack, but also the prospect of mixing and contaminating known potable water with questionable water sources. No matter how careful you are, there is always a little bit of "back wash" into the drinking tube, adding trace amounts of microbes, saliva, food particles into the collective water system. Without specialized maintenance and downtime, Camelbaks inevitably get cloudy, odd tasting water from microbe build-up. Also because of the location of the bladder, water is usually warmed by the body (good for snowmelt in the winter, but decidedly "unrefreshing" in hot weather). And, lastly, when my life depends on it, do I want all of my critical life giving water in one vinyl plastic bag? or in multiple, separate, indestructible Lexan bottles.
When on the move, I now prefer to carry multiple (6 or more) 500ml Lexan water bottles. Some are frozen (helping to keep other items cool as they melt down to refreshing ice water), some are flavoured (usually with ice tea for caffeine, but sometimes with Gatorade for electrolyte balance). Some are deep in my pack, some are in my pack pockets, one is always on my belt holster, and usually I put an extra bottle in my pants or jacket pocket. As I move along and consume water, I am constantly looking for good sources to refill my bottles (keeping each separate). If I lose one, it's not a complete disaster as I have other bottles.
Remember, water is the most important survival priority under most circumstances. Only rarely might the consideration of security (from a direct threat that will kill you immediately) supersede water in priority.
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