Posted by zog
on October 27, 2009, 6:24 pm, in reply to "Water/ Practical filtration 1"
Well, that's all good, but what do you do if you have NOTHING, but still need some decent water while out and about?
OK, fair enough question, and there are some answers.
Your food, what you are scrounging for eating, wild veggies and fruits contain moisture, this certainly helps.
You can construct what is called a solar still using nothing more than scrap plastic film and a can. I have used this method numerous times, it works. Now I *used* to have a drawing of this method up for years on the web, but geocities, where I had it stashed, is now closed, so that source doesn't exist. Here is an alternative that shows an example of the construction, it is quite easy really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_still
An alternative method of easy solar distillation is interesting, and again, I have done this. Take a normal plastic bag like a bread bag. Attach it over the end of a leafy branch of a tree, preferably not a conifer or anything with heavy aerosol smell to it, skip the cedars and oaks, etc, head for a maple or something a bit more neutral. Get as many leaves in there as possible without damaging them. Use the bread bag "twisty" to seal it to the branch, now let it sit in the sun. In a short while you will see water collecting in the bag. This is water that has been sucked up from the tree's roots and is now expirating out the leaves, but it gets trapped in the bag. It works, you can get some decent sips from that method. Yep, really that easy. You aren't going to get mega gallons, but then again, a few old breadbags with the twistys is easy to pack, too.
The solar still, besides being useful inland, is about the only cheap and easy way to garner fresh water from a saline environment. The saturated ground inside the still area, in the pit in the drawing in the link above, can be salty, but the dripped collected water is pure fresh. There are no other cheap and easy ways to do this. There are reverse osmosis units suitable for salt water to fresh water conversion, some electrically driven, some hand driven, etc, and all are spendy but claim to work. I do not have personal experience with these types, but similar are must haves on yachts and for lifeboats, etc so they must work, here is a good reference then
http://www.google.com/search?q=Seawater+desalination+kit
I would imagine marine supply stores in coastal areas carry these in stock
More good links to further your water interest
http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/faq/emerg.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_water_purification
Find more of my writings on water at SRND, by using the built in search function on the main page, just type Water/ in the box and hit enter
http://members.boardhost.com/SRNDBOARD
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