Water is a basic need to do anything you must to live the minimal life of survival; cook, drink, shower, clean. If water isn’t treated correctly or purified in the right ways, it can lead to severe sickness. When traveling or moving from one place to another. Non-filtered water is probably your only choice which isn’t a good option because it could contain chlorine, lead and A LOT of iron. However, it’s not your ONLY option, a great substitute that has no disadvantages to it whatsoever is portable water purifications – survival water filters! A quick way is knowing how to create a survival water filter on your own. It’s almost essential for a healthy portable lifestyle for drinking water and sometimes for quick cooking as well. There are many perks to having survival water filters, so here’s a few to know about;
Let these Harmful Organisms Go!
Statistics have shown that around 90% of the world’s water supply is not good for drinking unless it’s treated. The unfiltered water you drink most probably contains microorganisms and harsh minerals like iron or chlorine that can cause diarrhea and vomiting. Survival Water filters kill these organisms before it reaches you which makes it safe to drink on the go. Here are a bunch of harmful organisms that known to be removed after the usage of survival water filters:
- Bacteria
- Protozoa
- Algae
- Inorganic chemicals
- Parasites
Health Improvements
Water is essential for survival. Our minimum intake of water should be 2 liters per day. However, we sometimes forget even to drink half of that! Water is not only for survival, but it also decreases any chances of sickness, helps in skin care and weight loss as well. Filtered water improves the taste which automatically increases the amount of water you consume. Drinking the 64 ounces of water per day will benefit your joints, organs, and skin. Having water that tastes good or ‘pure’ while traveling will subconsciously make drinking water a lot easier.
Environment Friendly
You’re on the go, so your best option would be bottled water at this point. Besides it being expensive, it’s very harmful to the environment. These water bottles end up being in our landfills and stay there for thousands of years not decomposing. Bottles kill many organisms in the ocean, on land because of how much they are consumed — the more bottles that can be prevented from ending up in landfills, the better. Having a handy water filter will be a significant help to the environment because it will decrease the number of water bottles you purchase, plus it would save you a ton of money as well!
Convenient in Urgencies
Most of the survival water filters almost instantly filter the water. In times of desperation for water from you or any travel companions, this is an excellent tool for survival. Usually, the larger filters we have at home filter water with larger amounts, but the portable water filters filter lower amounts with faster time. The point behind how helpful your portable water filter would be is how right your choice of type would be from the beginning. Later on, you’ll have a quick understanding of each type and how it would help.
Survival Water Filters Vs. Backpacking Water Filters
The filters we have at home, also known as the backpacking water filters are huge. What’s great about them is that they fit large amounts of water for all family members in the household. Survival water filters, on the other hand, are much smaller. They’re made to be portable enough for any traveler to take without any issues. Portability is essential when backpacking especially, it must fit inside a backpack along with your other essentials as well.
Survival water filters also come in different shapes and sizes, here are a few perks of each type of the survival water filters.
Perks of Each Type
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Pump Filter
A hand-operating pump pulls the water above through a filter cartridge inside the filter. Clean water then comes out from the other end. Pump filter features:
- Pumps water from shallow sources
- Comes in diverse sizes
- Filters water directly
- Very quick compared to the other filters/li>
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Gravity Filters
Usually used for family camping. It comes in a pouch-form, the unfiltered water is inserted in the pouch and gravity does its job by forcing the clean water down the filter. Gravity filter features:
- No pumping or squeezing required
- Filters a lot of water at once
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Squeeze Filters
This filter works by putting water in a collection vessel like a bottle or a pouch then turn the filter mechanism into the vessel. The collection vessel is then squeezed, so water is forced from the other side. Squeeze filter features:
- Very small and convenient
- Lightweight
- Can work with a straw or as a gravity system
- Affordable
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Straw Filters
This is the simplest one of them all. It is a straw with a filter, voila! Straw filter features:
- Extremely fast to use
- Very handy
- Affordable
- Easy to use
Match your traveling needs with the water filter types above. Each type has its perks, but not all of them would necessarily be relevant to you. It would be a good idea if you study the destination you’ll be going to next to choose a survival water filter, or better yet; choose a water filter that will be a good option for different types of destinations!
Health = Clean Water: No Matter Where You Are!
Never push yourself to dehydration. Explorers here and there have a great possibility of running out of water supply. They might not even find stores in sight to buy bottled water. A portable water filter will be essential in such situations. With backpacking water filters, you can drink water from almost any water supply with your filtrating device; streams, rivers, tap water. You eliminate all the harmful organisms that come in unfiltered water, improve your health in all ways and save the environment(and your money!). Make sure you choose the right survival water filter for your journey to make the most out of it.
Have a safe trip, a healthier body and a clean environment to live in.
