WATER
Safe drinking water: What do you need to consider if you want to fill up your bottle from a natural source when you’re out and about?
The babbling mountain brook or spring may look crystal clear, but there is a real danger of contamination. Microorganisms such as E. coli, salmonella, E. multilocularis and norovirus make their way into the water by way of animal feces or even animal cadavers.
If none of the technical aids listed below are available, then you should at least search for a water source that is a far away (or far above) pastures and settlements. Stagnant water is absolutely off-limits.
The following rule of thumb isn’t a guarantee of purity, but: The faster the water flows and the colder and clearer it is, the more likely that it is free of dangerous pathogens.
How do you purify water on tour?
The best known (and very effective) method is definitely boiling the water. But it requires a lot of time and equipment and doesn’t remove suspended sediment.
Microscopic sediment (sand, silt, rock flour) that makes the water cloudy is mostly harmless, but should definitely not be consumed in large quantities or over a longer period of time. It can be removed using a mechanical filter. A filter containing activated carbon will even remove chemicals such as pesticides or chlorine, and ceramic filters with particularly small pores will remove bacteria and protozoa. There are very handy compact filters, but they do not offer protection against tiny viruses. Versions that can filter out even the smallest viruses are significantly larger, heavier and more expensive.
Viruses and bacteria can be killed using UV treatment. However, these battery-operated sterilizers can do nothing about suspended sediment.
One particularly simple, lightweight option is using chemical tablets to treat the water. But you need to have a little patience: They take time to work against the microorganisms – and the chemicals won’t help with the suspended sediment.
