Bad Water?

[orinoco]

There are a number of great posts and articles covering what you can do to filter and purify water, each method stops most of the nasty’s but seems no guarantee of everything. I’m interested in real world experience if anyone has actually had a bad experience drinking out of a puddle/stream with or without treating the water? Thanks

 

[Will_]

Yeah - I'm an absolute sucker for clear water when I'm thirsty!
I had a nice long drink from the river Avon last year. Spent the whole night being violently sick! It cleared up the next day though.
I also drank from a river in Spain many years ago and was sick and had diarrhoea for about a week before having to check into hospital. They put me straight on a drip. I was living rough, so it could have been bin food, but I always wondered if it was bad river water.
Having said that I've drank from a hundred rivers, streams and all sorts, and been absolutely fine too!
I bought a Sawyer Mini Filter this year thanks to Phil (Midnighthound) and I will never drink untreated water again!
I'll also stay away from river water completely I think as it could have been chemicals that made me sick.

 

[Limaed]

I've regularly drank from mountain streams in the Highlands and other mountainous areas in the UK. I only recall being ill once but I'm not totally convinced it was from drinking bad water.

Having said that I must admit now I'm becoming more cautious and try to plan better for my water needs. Ultimately you're always taking a bit of a risk and being sick isn't much fun! There's an interesting statistic in one of Uncle Ray's books that around 250,000 people die each day from disease spread by contaminated water.

If I have to drink I try and really assess the source now - is it a busy area, near camping spots, very dry conditions etc. I've been on quite a few expeditions to the developing world and the two quickest methods to getting sick are bad water and hand to mouth contamination.

 

[hog]

I can remember one day in Swaziland I was out in the bush and came upon a rather stagnant looking slow moving stream, I simply filled my water bottle and added two iodine tabs, a good shake and downed the lot. No ill effects, perhaps I was just lucky but in my book re hydration first and deal with the parasites later.

 

[Tiley]

I had an experience in the Alps a few years ago. We were descending from the Brenva Spur on Mont Blanc, walking back down to Chamonix. It was very hot and I had run out of water so, seeing a clear stream chuckling its way down the hillside, I dipped my hand in and scooped up a couple of handfuls of water.

It was in the Bar Nationale that all hell broke loose, prompting me to visit a doctor. He took some blood and told me that I either had an ulcer that was about to burst or I had a massive gastritis. He prescribed me what seemed like every antibiotic under the sun to be administered through any orifice available.

I missed out on the next week's climbing, lost a stone and a quarter and, when I roped up again, found myself as weak as a kitten and barely able to do anything.

Needless to say, I am now very careful about my water and its sources, taking care to filter and purify every time. My 'Brenva Blitz' is not something I would ever wish to repeat!

 

[John Fenna]

Lake Volta in Ghana at the end of the dry season and the start of the rains.
All sorts of crud in the water and although we filtered and purified every drop we drank, swimming, washing, canoeing etc inevitably meant we got some in our mouths.
I had to be sent home early due to extreme illness!

 

[Uilleachan]

I had an experience in the Alps a few years ago. We were descending from the Brenva Spur on Mont Blanc, walking back down to Chamonix. It was very hot and I had run out of water so, seeing a clear stream chuckling its way down the hillside, I dipped my hand in and scooped up a couple of handfuls of water.

It was in the Bar Nationale that all hell broke loose, prompting me to visit a doctor. He took some blood and told me that I either had an ulcer that was about to burst or I had a massive gastritis. He prescribed me what seemed like every antibiotic under the sun to be administered through any orifice available.

I missed out on the next week's climbing, lost a stone and a quarter and, when I roped up again, found myself as weak as a kitten and barely able to do anything.

Needless to say, I am now very careful about my water and its sources, taking care to filter and purify every time. My 'Brenva Blitz' is not something I would ever wish to repeat!

I had my worst ever experience with dodgy water just down the valley from Chamonix swimming in a lake whilst having a little R&R break from climbing. Swallowed some water accidentally whilst swimming, that served me right for laughing so hard, I won't go into the details but I had almost a week in the Cham hospital lost 20lb and was quite ill for several weeks. The up shot, after some phantom reoccurrence, was that I seem to have a stronger constitution as a result.

I think the key to drinking any water is to ensure that there's no or very little human activity above the point you drink from, if there is you need to proceed with caution and think about treating it. Never had an issue in upland scotland.

 

[oldtimer]

My son, as a toddler, drank from a Welsh mountain lake: just a mouthful when I had taken my eye off him for a moment. He was extremely ill and needed treatment. I have on occasion drunk from mountain streams in the Pyrenees when very thirsty, but only when I know that the spring from which they come is only a little above them. However, the hills are alive with the sound of cowbells, and cow pats gets washed downhill into the streams. I filter and boil in camp.

When we lived in the tropics, we routinely chlorinated even the local tap water.

Although dealing with dehydration is the first priority, the results of drinking contaminated water can be so serious, it really isn't worth taking the risk if it can be avoided. Fortunately on this web-site you can easily find sound and easy to follow advice from people who know what they are talking about. Just type water purification into the search box.

Also be aware that some ways of purifying water can of themselves creat a problem. We only recently realised that my wife's apparent digestive problems in the hills were caused by her intolerance to iodine. We hadn't then made the connection between this and her shellfish intolerance. I understand that iodine based water treatments have been banned recently, but some old stock may remain on the shelves.

 

[Zingmo]

I remember as a teenager being part of a party on Dartmoor who all went down with D & V after drinking from a stream on the moor. Someone had proclaimed that it would be safe as we had walked downstream for a mile without seeing any dead sheep!

Z

 

[Rich D]

Had the runs quite badly in the Pyrenees from a quick gulp from a glacial run off stream - it was probably due to the high mineral content I got told later, also had projectile vomiting from eating snow in the lake district (and no it wasn't yellow). Those 2 occasions were enough to make me very careful. (although I suppose it's hard to 100% say that it was that that did it)

 

[bearbait]

I believe that glacial run-off contains very very fine particles of rock (your minerals) called rock flour, which is a well-known cure for constipation. You can see this glacial run-off in the lovely turquoise-coloured lakes such as Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies.

 

[xylaria]

Gortons well Staffordshire. I had drink from the spout in the stones many times before, this time I drank what 30 feet from the source. The diarrhoea lasted 10 days. It was 6 weeks before I got health back but a good while before guts stop being irritable.

I fell in the thames when I was a teenager and was only ill for a week. Took a mouthful and gagged up as it tasted like mud. I didn't even get gut rot just a high fever and a high resting heart rate.

 

[Joonsy]

Gortons well Staffordshire

Or Gawtons Well I’ve drunk from numerous wells & springs around Malvern (and other places) for years with no ill effects, therefore last time I was there I was surprised to see a health warning on the Westminster bank spring at malvern saying it was contaminated.

 

[gaz_miggy]

I fell in the river in Bilbao I don't remember swollowing any but I was very I'll for 3 days unable to hold much down. Mabe it surves me wright for being stupid and falling in the first place.

 

[xylaria]

Or Gawtons Well I’ve drunk from numerous wells & springs around Malvern (and other places) for years with no ill effects, therefore last time I was there I was surprised to see a health warning on the Westminster bank spring at malvern saying it was contaminated.

Springs get contamination when the water table goes past a certain point. Very dry or very wet weather can cause problems even with domestic tap water.

I have know idea how the well is spelt. It is at the top of trent in knipesly reservoir (that spelt wrong aswell)

 

[wicca]

I've been drinking from this well for nearly 4 years now. The well is possibly of Medieval origin. I run the water through a 'Drinksafe' filter and then boil it. I'm still here with zero ill effects..

 

[Toddy]

....... be aware that some ways of purifying water can of themselves creat a problem. We only recently realised that my wife's apparent digestive problems in the hills were caused by her intolerance to iodine. We hadn't then made the connection between this and her shellfish intolerance. I understand that iodine based water treatments have been banned recently, but some old stock may remain on the shelves.

Now I didn't know that, and I am allergic to all fish, including shellfish, and I had wondered why I felt really miserable after drinking iodined water at camp.
I will be aware now; thank you

Our local spring water is beautiful, but all the wells are now capped and our water is piped from the Daer reservoir up on the Lanark Moors....it too is beautiful water, but the H&S pollute it with so much chlorine that you can smell it as it comes out of the taps

Never been up nor down drinking the wild water, and I've sailed, swum and kayaked in a lot of lochs and rivers over the years.

M

 

[British Red]

No-one can stop you driving your own well Mary.

 

[Toddy]

We get enough rain that most of the year the outside sink doesn't need a hosed water supply.
Every hole dug in the garden fills up with water. It's a struggle to keep the moss and algae at bay round here. Our back fences are green, and it's not paint, iimmc.

It does seem a shame though that the two villages were known for having beautiful well water, and we end up with this highly chlorinated stuff from the taps.
I suppose with all the sewers around though, it's safer.

M

 

[River98]

Yeah - I'm an absolute sucker for clear water when I'm thirsty!
I had a nice long drink from the river Avon last year. Spent the whole night being violently sick! It cleared up the next day though.
I also drank from a river in Spain many years ago and was sick and had diarrhoea for about a week before having to check into hospital. They put me straight on a drip. I was living rough, so it could have been bin food, but I always wondered if it was bad river water.
Having said that I've drank from a hundred rivers, streams and all sorts, and been absolutely fine too!
I bought a Sawyer Mini Filter this year thanks to Phil (Midnighthound) and I will never drink untreated water again!
I'll also stay away from river water completely I think as it could have been chemicals that made me sick.

Can you make any water safe with the sawyer water filter?