Clean and fresh drinking water is basic for your successful outdoor experience. You will use it for drinking and cooking your meals. To meet your water requirements you can choose to carry water from home. However, you would have to carry a lot of it to make sure you are hydrated.
The other and more practical option would be to use the water from the sources around your campsite such as rivers and lakes. Water from these sources, however, is full of visible and invisible germs. When you consume it just as it is, you will definitely get sick.
Purifying it is a must in this case and this article will teach you how to purify water in the outdoors.
What is the safest way to purify water?
You should always consider drinking clean water so here you have 3 methods to purify it. These methods include boiling, filtering, and chemical treatment. Let’s take a look at each of them.
This is the simplest method that you can use to purify it when you are in nature. It is also the cheapest as you won’t have to purchase anything else to make this process a success.
To boil it, all you need is a pan and the water to be purified. Heat the water for about 10 minutes to bring it to boil. Boiling will kill all the germs in the water and make it suitable for human consumption.
Boiling is also the least labor-intensive method of all the water purification techniques as all you have to do it to monitor it as it boils. Besides drinking it you can use it for cleaning, preparing meals and brewing coffee.
Allow the water to cool down and then sieve it to remove any solid segments.
The other method that you can use to purify water is by filtering it. A filter is supposed to remove the solid particles present in water but the modern filters we have today do more than this.
A chemical component
They have a chemical component that kills the germs that are not visible to the human eye. These invisible germs are the most dangerous. You should avoid the filters without a chemical component.
Other than killing invisible germs, such filters allow you to drink/use the water immediately the purification process is complete. You won’t have to wait for it to cool down since it is not heated in the first place.
Small and compact
There are people who worry that filters are heavy and bulky but that is not the case anymore. Nowadays filters are built to be small and compact to make it easy to transport and pack. They are also not that expensive as they were when filters were heavy. As an avid camper, you should make sure that you have one of these in your arsenal.
Such a filter will help you clean water and this will guarantee your safety and well-being.
You can also choose to treat water with chemicals. Chemical treatment involves the use of iodine tablets to purify it. They are quite effective in killing bacteria that are present in unfiltered water.
Quick and easy to use
This method of water treatment is quick and easy to use. All you have to do is to drop the tablet in your water, wait for some time and you are good to go. Iodine tablets can also be accessed easily. As a camper, you should make sure that you have a few of these for your purification needs.
Use running water
Iodine leaves a taste in the water being purified but if you are not a fan of the iodine taste, you can get other tablets that function to remove it. In as much as iodine will kill most of the germs, it is advisable to collect running water as it is deemed safer than a stationary one. Moving water is free of the scum that is found on settled water and as such, it is much safer for human consumption.
You can also get your water from a spring head as it is usually less contaminated.
When you are out there camping, it is vital to make sure that the water is clean and free of germs for consumption. With my 3 easy methods, you are able to purify water in the outdoors without a hassle.