Water is an essential resource you always need to have around. When you go camping you must stay hydrated at all times, especially if you want to do energy-draining activities, such as hiking, for example. You might encounter natural sources of water during your camping trip, however, just because the water looks clean doesn't matter you can drink it. In fact, untreated water contains bacteria, parasites, viruses, in simple words, a bunch of bad things that if you consume, it could cause terrible damage to your health. That's when water purification comes in.
Just like the name suggests, water purification is purifying the water and cleaning it from all the harmful elements so it's safe to drink. You might accidentally run out of drinking water, if you are in a remote destination, away from society, then you might as well be in trouble, only if you don't know how to purify water by yourself. Luckily for you, today I'll show you the best and easiest ways to clean your water and make it safe to drink, so you would never have to go through a bad experience.
The number one most common way, and one of the easiest, of purifying your water is by boiling it. This is also one of the oldest techniques used to make drinkable water. The only thing you have to is to boil the water you want to drink. Depending on the altitude, it might take more minutes to boil and get rid of all the harmful pathogens. Essentially, boil the water for 1-3 minutes, and that's it! Now it's ready to use. Boiling the water is going to literally burn almost everything harmful contained in the water.
This is easier than the previous method as you only need to sit and wait for your water to be ready. You can find these types of tables online or in stores that sell camping gear. After reading the instructions, you should add the correct dosage to the specific amount of water you want to purify, some tablets are more potent than others, so, you need to be careful. Basically, these tables will clean your water perfectly, the only downside is that you have to wait quite some time before it's ready to drink. The tablets take around 30 minutes to be effective, but you should wait 4 hours until you consume the water.
Distillation is one of those techniques you've probably seen people on survival TV shows doing. This technique is about combining nature with physics. You'll need some materials to make your own distiller, a big container, a small one, a plastic bag and something to make pressure with, it could be a rock. This method is better to use in areas where the temperature is high, also, distillation can give you better results than boiling the water. So, the first step is to dig a hole and place the big container there, inside, there will be the small container, which is the one carrying the water. Lastly, place the plastic bag to seal any opening and place the rock on top. Slowly, water will evaporate and transform into droplets that will eventually become drinkable water.