How to drink water???

[3nails]

This may be a dumb question but in a survival situation do you drink or ration your water? I've read that the best place to store water is in the stomach. If you have the water, drink it, and hope you can find some more.

Situation: Say you are in the middle of nowhere and you're two days into your trek and at least three days from any hope of rescue. You have not had a drink of water in two days and you have been sweating alot. You come upon a nearly dried up creek bed and find a small pocket of water. You use you banadana to soak up almost 1L of water that you squeeze into your platapus and you put in an iodine tab and purify it. No more water in site and it may be three more days or longer before rescue. Now what? Do you gulp the water or sip it a little at a time over the next few days? How do you drink the water?



Thanks Dean

 

[Doc Ron]

Not a dumb question... a good one. We are discussing water issues over in the Hoodlums forum. We just released our Desert Survival video and we spend a lot of time on the physiology of water, water loss, hyponatremia etc. etc.. The short form is. Drink when thirsty. Rationing will not prolong survival and may actually kill you. You are more effective if you maintain hydration. a 5% dehydration works out to a 25% reduction in the ability to do work. another clue... ration sweat not water.

Water is just a part of the equation of desert survival.

Ron Hood

 

[coyotlviejo]

If you maintain yourself at 5% dehydration (25% reduction in normal funcionality as Doc said) you will prolong life in the immediate sense. However, by increasing your hydration immediately, even though it reduces your life-sustaining supply, you would be much more capable of searching out a longer-lasting water source. So you might 'sacrifice' 4 hours worth of water rations but enable yourself to find a pocket that contains 8 hours worth. Or if you still don't find other water, at least you will be more rational to maximize your rescue possibilities (creat signals, watch for nearby travelers, etc.).