As many of us know one of the most important things that is needed in an emergency is clean water to drink. One of the most common ways of doing this is with a chemical disinfectant. Common unscented bleach is easily available and does work, but I would say this is not the best choice. The EPA states that “Boiling is the surest method to make water safe to drink and kill disease-causing microorganisms…” . I prefer to have other methods of purifying water as I am not a fan of chemicals if the water my family drink even on a daily basis, and you never know when your municipal water source might be compromised. Boiling chemical treatment are not practical on a daily basis so filtration has been the solution that I have implemented (Remember that being prepared for an emergency is a lifestyle, not something stored in the closet that you forget about till you need). There are numberous filters that are available on the market that can give you clean drinking water. From the research that I have done I settled on a gravity system as it can be easily used when you can fill it from the tap, but is effective for purifying contaminated raw water from other sources. Some of the things that you will want to consider when choosing a method of purifying water are:
- How much water you need to purify
- Does it require electricity
- Does it require pressure to move through a filter
- What kind of maintenance does it require
After my research I decided that for me a berky gravity filter would work the best. It is simple to use, and to maintain, cheap per gallon of water, and removes many of the nasties that are in even the “clean” water that is provided by your city (yes it is a pet peeve, as the water quality in my town has on several occasions not passsed EPA standards for drinking water, and I pay them to do this…..)