How To Purify Water Naturally

By Philip Yiga | October 29, 2015

All people drink water at some point during the day or at night but in-case the water you’re about to drink seems to be contaminated with parasites, bacteria and other particles,  then you need to find a solution on how to purify your drinking water. In fact, there are various methods that you can use to purify drinking water and you just need to pick method that works best for water purification needs in order prevent getting sick due to consuming contaminated water. So, try reading through the following methods and instructions listed below in order to learn how to purify your own drinking-water:

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METHOD-1: BOILING THE WATER:

1. Pour the water to be purified into the cooking-pot: put the water to be purified into a saucepan and place it onto a stove then turn the stove on to a high boiling-level. When the water boils, all the bacteria that were living in it will be destroyed hence reducing on the chances of getting sick while drinking this water. Additionally, in case you’re in the wilderness and you need to purify drinking-water, then build a fire using wood and after boil the water placed in a pot or fire-proof container.

 

2. Bring water to a rolling-boil point: if bubbles start to appear while cooking water, then it’s beginning to boil but you should continue heating water until it reaches a hard-rolling boil and after start timing it. In fact, when water starts boiling leave it over fire for 5-10 minutes and always add 1-minute for every 300m up to 550m above sea-level because at higher-levels boiling water tends to be ineffective upon killing any bacteria and other micro-organisms. However, you should know that boiling water won’t remove any solids, metals or minerals.

 

3. Remove the cooking pot from the heat-source: after the water gets boiled, careful remove the cooking-pot from the heat-source and then place the pot to safe place like on the floor or over the sink.

 

4. Leave the water sit and settle: let the water sit, cool and settle after boiling it because this will help any dense items in water to sink naturally hence allowing the user get pure water from the top. However, you won’t have to do this incase you’re boiling tap-water because such water doesn’t contain any solid-items, minerals or even metals.

 

METHOD-2: USING PURIFICATION-TABLETS TO CLEAN WATER:

1. Purchase the purification tablets or drops: you actually have to first buy the purification tablets/drop from a clinic or adventure-store. In fact, iodine tablets are the most commonly sold purifying-tablets but you may still use chlorine tablets for the same result. However, you also know that this is not the best tasting-method but it will at least protect you from any bacteria that may have been living in the water treated.

 

2. Strain the water: try straining the water in case it contains any large particles floating within it. You can actually do this by pouring water through a cloth as it flows into a container/bottle that will be used for purification processes. In fact, the cloth acts as the strainer that traps any particles floating in water.

 

3. Put the tablets into the water: after preparing the water to be used, place the purification-tablet into it. Additionally, if the purification-drops came with instruction, then follow them in order to achieve best results. Likewise, it’s usually advised to use at least -1-tablet for each quart/liter of water that you wish to purify. However, you should be aware that these purification-tablets have an expiration-date and this means that they will become less-effective after that date. So always check for the expiration-date before using the purification tablets/drops.

 

4. Mix-up and dissolve the purification tablets/drop into the water: purification tablets/drops should be completely dissolved into the water so that can become more effective in terms of purifying water. Additionally, you must wait for about 30-minutes before you begin drinking the water because the purification-tablets need time to effectively kill all the bacteria in water. However, you should know that purification-tablets are less-effective in very cold water.

 

METHOD-3: PURIFYING WATER USING A WATER-PURIFIER:

1. Use a pump-purifier: this type of water-purifier can be used in with a canteen or water-bottle when out in the wilderness. In fact, a pump purifier is actually hand-held and it’s made of a ceramic or synthetic cartridge. Likewise, most of these filters have 2 separate hoses whereby one is meant for clean-water and the other for dirty-water. On top of that, on the hose that pumps in dirty-water or lake-water, there is usually a foam floatation-device that prevent the hose from sinking to the bottom. Lastly, a pump-purifier will also have a plunger/lever which can be pulled and pushed so that water can be sucked-up, run through different filters and then pumped out and into the water-bottle. However, there are also pump-purifiers that can be attached onto the kitchen-sink.

 

2. Purchase a water-bottle with a built-in purifier: today, you can also buy water-bottles that have in-built water-filters. Such water-bottles work much like pumps whereby they pump water through the filter before dispensing it into the bottle.

 

3. Acquire and use an ultraviolet purifier: ultraviolet-purifiers are very easy to use whereby you simply place the pen of the lamp into water and then wait for the light on the side of the pen to turn green. Stir-up the water using the pen until the light turns off. In fact, an ultraviolet purifier produces UV-rays that help kill any bacteria living in water so that it becomes safer to drink.

 

4. Use a gravity fed purifier: these purifiers use gravity to pull dirty-water through a filter and into a reservoir that contain clean, pure water. In fact, using a gravity fed purifier is simple because you just have to pour unpurified water into the dirty water-section and then wait until all water has run through the filter to the other section containing clean-water.

 

METHOD-4: CREATING A PURIFYING-SYSTEM IN THE WILDERNESS:

1. Generate a cone out of a bark-strip: birch-bark of bark similar to it’s usually the best for creating a filtering system because of its flexibility which enables it to keep its shape. However, you must know that this water-filtration method doesn’t fully purify water but simply reduces on the amount of microbes in water.

 

2. Layer the bark-cone: wilderness survival also suggests layering the bark-cone with sand, charcoal, grass and gravel (small-rocks). In fact, charcoal is very good in terms of removing bacteria so make sure you include it in your water-filter cone.

 

3. Pour water through the cone and into a bottle/container: pour the water through you layered cone and then let it filter into a container. In fact, it advised to do this for several times in order to increase on the amount of water-purification that occurs. All in all, this method doesn’t guarantee purification but it will help remove a great deal of contaminants from water.