What's the best way to obtain drinkable water in case of an 'event?'

I'm optimistic of the future, but the way things are going on, we're in a "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" type of situation.

So I ask you: what's the best way to get drinking water if you live in a city? Would stocking water be the only route to take? Unless you get rainfall, it would be a limited supply.

How about the best water purification methods? Anyone have any feedback on certain products... I know some can range in the hundreds of dollars, but are they really worth it? Again, it seems that unless you actually have a water source, they're of no use.

Just recently I heard of "Atmospheric Water Generators," and I was surprised that I never heard of these before. I looked up the specific brand that was advertised (in the Alex Jones show for anyone that's curious,) and it sells in the 1300$ zone. They have to be hooked up to a power source, but you could always use solar panels, or other generators, in case the power grid went down. Anyone looked into these? Again, is the price really worth it? I searched for a bit, and I didn't find many companies selling these. In an "end of the world" scenario, this seems to really be the best option if you live in a humid area.

Here are some companies selling the generators (some of these are more for commercial use

www.aquamagic.us...

www.airwatercorp.com...

ecoloblue.com...

terralab.tripod.com...


[edit on 27-9-2008 by DavidU]

There's a few ways to go about doing this depending on the situation.
www.dickssportinggoods.com...
Has a few assorted purifiers made for camping with reverse osmosis/carbon filtering but incase of suspected poisoning of the public water supply, I would suggest collecting natural sources, catch drain water then filter or you can make your own makeshift solar powered water seperator with a water container and some clear plastic. Put the contaminated water in the container and something in the center to hold the plastic above it shaped like a upside down V so the water evaporates and condenses on the plastic, runs down and drips into another, cooler container. This can be done outside too by digging a hole, filling it with green plant material, even taking a leak in it, then sitting a catch-pot in the center, cover the plastic and put a stone in the center, the next morning you will have 99.9% pure water for free.

In a city it's hard to say but if you can get out of town to an area with green vegitation then your in luck it's easy but you will need many to make a good amount of water.

Need:
Green vegatation
2 pieces of plastic
a rock
a container to catch the water.

You dig a hole in the ground.

You place a piece of plastic in the hole and push it down so it forms around the entire hole make sure the plastic is large enough so some of it covers the outside edges of the top of the hole (in other words just like you would wrap tin foil around an oven burner but instead of folding the excess tin foil around the burner you would leave it sticking over the sides)

Then place the container your going to collect water in, in the center of this whole.

Next take whatever green vegatation you have and place it AROUND not in the container unless you like grass in your drinking water.

Now the second piece of plastic covers the top of the hole

and remember I said to leave extra plastic around the top edges when putting in the bottom piece of plastic in? This is because when you put the top piece of plastic on you want a decent seal around the edges. So when you cover the top of the hole you pack the sides of the plastic with dirt around the edges creating basicly a make shift plastic bubble.

Then you place the rock on top of, the top piece of plastic. Be sure it's directly over the center of the water collection container you have inside the make shift bubble and push lightly down so the top piece of plastic dips in a small amount.

Here's what happens then.

Inside the plastic it will heat up, the vegitation will then release water vapor (which you can't see) this vapor rises to the top of the plastic and forms into water droplets, because the rock is in the center and because you pushed it down a bit, the water droplets will slide towards that dip in the top and because it's directly over the water container it then drips into the water container and you can directly drink it from there.

If you want to get real crazy, we took a rubber tube and stuck it into the container and had it run outside the plastic (Like a straw) and sealed the end of the "straw" with some material then when we had enough in water unsealed the straw and drank it directly out of the container that way avoiding having to take it apart and re-do it because we had to dump the water out into another container.

Like I said you make multiple ones as you only get a small amount out assuming it's a hand dug hole.

First time we tried it we thought oh man this is gonna take forever. It was 68 degrees F out and the sun was just rising when we did it. Within about 2 minutes of sealing the sides of the plastic up water droplets started to form on the top piece of plastic and run into the cup we placed underneath it. We were amazed at how quickly it started to work. The hard part was digging the stupid hole in the dirt. Would have been a lot easier to set up in sand as this is more of a last resort desert survival technique but works really well in normal non-desert enviorments.

Boil it then collect the steam in a separate chamber coiled to condense. then drip it out through a filter. Or just buy iodine tablets and ready a few backpacks for travel.

ive drank iodine cleansed stream water from a mountain, i felt fine, though it didnt taste all that great.

I live in the middle of the desert, will not work here

Look at Google maps and look for a source of fresh water: rivers, lakes, streams, mountains.

Water can be found from these places and then boiled to kill off any bacteria. Add kool-aid or a tea bag to the water to cover any taste it may have.

If you live in the desert your best source of water will be rainfall or plants. If you see a cactus, skin it and de-thorn it. Chewing on the cactus plant will provide you with enough water to stay satiated. Be sure to check to see what local cacti are growing in your areas, because some may have side-effects.

You can also dig at the base of plants and find water (the bigger the plant, the more water will be stored underneath it). This water will be muddy, but you can strain it through a cloth to filter out dirt and other particles, and then boil it to kill any bacteria.

I would recommend looking at Google maps before doing anything else, and save the later methods as a last resort. Lucky for me, I have a river in my backyard so I will never run out of fresh water.

[edit on 27-9-2008 by DJMessiah]

Sir, May I suggest you take a look at a Berkfeld filter unit, we have owned and used them for years and keep one in our survival cache along with spare filter candles

WWW.AVONSOFT.COM, look up the

Gravity filters
www.avonsoft.com...
Respects NR

I guess it would be a good idea for me to plant some aloe vera after all.

Ama

reply to post by DavidU


The correct Web Address for Terralab IS terralab.tripod.com...

They have the newest and the greenest air to water technology

save a penny rather than 'spend a penny'!

it may sound a bit gross to some, but if you save your urine by peeing into a storable container and then use the evaporation method to distill the water, you have a source not only of potable water, but the residue from the process can be used as an excellent source of fertilizer for any crops

[edit on 30-9-2008 by citizen smith]