Shallow Water Gathering

G

Gurthang

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Apr 12, 2008
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When camping, what is the best method of getting your drinking water from a source that is shallow, and will stir up sediment if you disturb it too much?

I'm interested to learn what ways you guys have come up with to prevent excessive particles from getting stirred up. I'm about to start using a water filter, but have heard they can clog.

I've also read that filling a water bag and 'pumping' the filter in the comfort of camp beats the hell out of doing so bent over at a small stream. This seems to make sense to me. How exactly do you guys make this chore easier?
 
If the soil permits, dig an indian well. If not or in addition, make your own filter out of a tennis ball can by punching small holes in the bottom; then lining the bottom with cotton cloth and or sphagnum moss, then a little ground up charcoal mixed with more cloth and moss and then gravel on top. Or you could do the whole thing with cloth. Either way you will still need to treat. Here is some other info...

http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/making-water-safe-to-drink-video/
 
Fill the water bag, bucket, cup, bowl whatever from the shallow stream, and let the water settle. the siphon the less cruddy water from the top. You could run the water through a cloth first if it is really muddy. just get out as much crud as you can before filtering, and cover the end of the siphon tube with a cloth or piece of nylon stocking.
 
A cup that has the rim held just below the water can be 1/2 filled with water without stirring up much sediment. Pour this into a suitable water container (I find a recycled wine cask bladder works well as a water container, as it folds up small and will still hold 4 litres).

It takes a bit longer, but it will minimise the disturbance to the water.

Collectingwater.jpg



If the water has larger debris, use a piece of cloth (eg clean hanky, bandana etc) to pre-filter the courser bits of suspended solids as you pour it into a container.

Filteringwater-1.jpg


As has already been mentioned, if the water is muddy, letting it sit for a while will give the finer sediments time to settle out.

If your in an area where pathogens can be a problem, you can always filter or otherwise treat the water from the container back at camp before drinking it.


Hope this helps.


Kind regards
Mick
 
Gurthang said:
When camping, what is the best method of getting your drinking water from a source that is shallow, and will stir up sediment if you disturb it too much?

I'm interested to learn what ways you guys have come up with to prevent excessive particles from getting stirred up. I'm about to start using a water filter, but have heard they can clog.

I've also read that filling a water bag and 'pumping' the filter in the comfort of camp beats the hell out of doing so bent over at a small stream. This seems to make sense to me. How exactly do you guys make this chore easier?
Click to expand...


The biggest issue with using a filter is clogging (at least that's what I've found with mine). Always doing your best to minimize crud going in will help a lot. Any type of washable pre-filter on the intake will help a lot.

My Sweetwater Guardian came with a small block of foam that clamps on the intake line to float the intake above the bottom sediment in shallow water.

I've never had to use it in really shallow water, but if the water was moving, I'd probably dig out a deep spot and wait for it to clear, or use a cup to fill another container and do the filter pumping back at camp (which, as you mentioned, beats the heck out of balancing over the edge of a stream or pond while holding water containers and pumping filters).

My new Katadyn filter uses a big water bag and gravity to do the filtering. You fill up the water bag with "raw" water, then hang it up with the output line feeding into your clean water container. I haven't used it yet, but it seems like a good design.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
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