GEAR AND GUIDANCE FOR SECURING YOUR SAFE WATER SUPPLY

BY MICHAEL D’ANGONA

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Unlike the animals that roam the various environments throughout the world and gulp up water wherever it’s found, humans don’t have that luxury — at least not without the probability of incurring serious illnesses and possible death.

Quenching your thirst is not always an easy process and it’s one that requires three key steps. First, water must be found. Second, the water must be processed by one of numerous means and, finally, the water must be put in pr oper containers so it may be safely stored or efficiently and conveniently transported.

With careful attention to each step, the crucial chore of getting plentiful safe drinking water can be transformed into a relatively easy system. Many options for treating raw water can be utilized to ensure your parched lips will be sated, your body hydrated and the risk of dying fr om lack of water rendered almost nonexistent.

1.0 SCORING A SOURCE

Since animals began roaming the land, they have never strayed far from sources of water. Whether the animals live in the mountains, on the plains, in deserts or at the poles, their necessity for water has determined how far they range from home and their routes of migration.

1.1 We Have Options

Humans have an advantage over most other land animals in that we’re capable of transporting a supply of water beyond what we carry within our bodies. We have also developed ways of making bad water potable, further extending our habitat. We have gone beyond the limitations of having to find open surface water, such as ponds, lakes, creeks and rivers. We dig wells and create other methods of c ollecting water where those options didn’t previously exist.

1.2 Civilization’s Bounty

In survival situations, we can also locate water in less obvious but equally productive locations such as swimming pools and fountains, water heaters and toilet tanks and the millions of miles of water supply pipes running throughout the places where we have settled.

1.3 Find the Signs

If you find yourself needing a source for water, stop and look around until you see the effects that water can have on an area, from lush greenery to erosion ditches and signs of civilization where water service is likely to exist. Chances are, you’ll have some success in finding a source for water that you can make safe enough to satisfy your needs.