There are several ways for trekkers to purify water along the tracks to make it suitable for drinking purpose. Like the water can be purified with a portable filter or using ultraviolet light. In fact, simply boiling the water can help get rid of impurities. For more methods and tips Explore this PPT.

1. Survival Skills
101: Purifying
Water When
Outdoors

2. clean
drinking
water
while
camping
or
trekking
Getting access to clean drinking water
while camping or trekking is kind of
difficult. People who have experienced
such survival situations can relate to this.
When on a trek or hiking expedition, people
have to largely depend on natural water
sources like streams and rivers to drink water.
And it’s not unknown to many that drinking
straight away from the streams or any other
water sources isn’t safe. So, one of the top
survival priorities when hiking is not just
finding water to drink but disinfecting it
before taking it inside your system.
Luckily, there are several ways for trekkers to
purify water along the tracks to make it
suitable for drinking purpose. Like the water
can be purified with a portable filter or using
ultraviolet light. In fact, simply boiling the
water can help get rid of impurities. All these
methods and many others can be effective
provided they are done properly.

3. OFF,
FINDIN
G A
WATER
SOUR
CE IS
IMPOR
• Before even thinking of disinfecting the water, you have to
first find where exactly you can find water. You have to be
vigilant about the area or your trail so you exactly know
where you can find watering holes in case you run out of
water supply.
• Depending on your location and situation, you can find
various natural surface sources like streams, creeks, ponds,
lakes to get water. If you are able to distil water on your
hike, you can even use salty water.
• Precipitation can be your emergency water supply. Rain,
snow, hail, ice, sleet and dew can be collected to get
drinkable water (if they are untouched by the ground).
Besides, water coming from tapped trees like maple and
birch is drinkable and rich in late winter. But most other
sources should be considered dirty, unsafe and must be
disinfected with one of the following methods.

4. BOILING • To kill water-borne contaminants like bacteria,
parasites and other pathogens in water, the easiest
thing you can do is boil the water. Though chemical
toxic waste will not get evaporated through boiling,
it is still considered one of the safest and most used
methods of disinfection.
Boiling water for five minutes eradicates most of the
organisms, but for a safer side, keep it for 10
minutes maximum.
• To boil water, either use a metal stove or a
glass/ceramic container. If no utensil is nearby, heat
rocks for 30 minutes in the fire and place them into
your water container. This container could be a rock
depression, a bowl burned out of wood or a folded
bark container. Avoid using quartz or any river rocks
as these can explode when heated.

5. SURVIVAL
STRAWS
• The smallest and the lightest disinfecting tool that hit the market recently in
the form of portable water filter is the straw-style water filter. This can be
used as you would a normal drinking straw and can also connect to the drain
valve on a water heater to clean and purify the water. Also, the straw can
seamlessly fit onto a garden hose to filter the water running through it.
• However, you can’t expect this disinfectant tool to filter out every single
virus or bacteria in your water. Most of the straw-style filters contain an
activated carbon filtered element which filters out large bacteria and
pathogens while also removing odd flavours and odours from the water.

6. PORTAB
LE
WATER
FILTERS
• Pump-action and drip/suction filters are
the two common types of filters used by
trekkers. As the name suggests, the
former one utilises a pump to force raw
water through a filter cartridge. The
latter one, on the other hand, uses a
gravity drip action or is placed in line on
hydration bladder hoses.
To use portable water filters for a long
time during an outdoor adventure, it is
better to clean it after every use; at some
point, you will need to replace them
after treating several gallons of water.

7. ULTRAVI
OLET
LIGHT
• Small organisms can’t withstand UV
light; so, when used as a disinfection
method, UV light can have damaging
effects on small organisms. This one
is similar to a small flashlight, just
swish it around in the water for a few
minutes and here you have - a water
without illness-causing microbes.
• To operate UV light, you need to
carry quite a lot of batteries so that
you can filter out bacteria at regular
intervals.

8. Wrapping
up
• While there are many other ways to
ensure that the water that gets into your
body is free of dirt and impurities, any of
the methods above should reduce the
possibilities of illness you can catch from
drinking unfiltered water straight from
natural sources.

9. Contact
us
Filter Systems Australia
Address: 38 Jade Drive,
Molendinar, Gold Coast, QLD 4214
Phone: 1300 888 008
Email:
info@filtersystemsaustralia.com.a
u
Website:
https://www.filtersystemsaustral
ia.com.au