Water natural filtration

[forestwalker]

Has it? My book is from 1988.
What do they recommend these days?

Boiling
Commercial filters
Chlorine based tablets/drops (the Cl02 stuff works better against parasites than then traditional chlorine products)
Iodine based preparations are contraindicated for some groups[1], and is therefore not recommended if one can avoid it.

I summed it up a couple of years ago in a small booklet (http://www.hunter-gatherer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/vatten.pdf), but that is in Swedish, so most here are out of luck until I find my Round Tuit (it got mislaid some time back) and translate it into English.

[1] People with thyroid disease, preganant women, children

 

[forestwalker]

Is that because it is ineffective or on conservation grounds?

Ineffective. People kept getting sick after using it.

 

[Janne]

In those days they recommended 20 minutes boiling as the best, the Army water purification tablets as number two, and the filtration as last resort.

Wonder what the soldiers ( the few left in Sweden) are given? I doubt a filtration system!

I have drunk water without any filtration all through Scandinavia, while trekking, and never got sick.
The only few times I got a reaction ( mild diarrhea) was when I used heavily brown swamp water in cooking.

I just follow a few simple rules. All water I drink "au naturel' is well outside civilization, and no civilization or farms upstream.

In Sweden my main worry would be radio active particles from Chernobyl.

These days I only visit Norway, and the natural water there is like Voss, except without the plastic bottle.

Boiling
Commercial filters
Chlorine based tablets/drops (the Cl02 stuff works better against parasites than then traditional chlorine products)
Iodine based preparations are contraindicated for some groups[1], and is therefore not recommended if one can avoid it.

I summed it up a couple of years ago in a small booklet (http://www.hunter-gatherer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/vatten.pdf), but that is in Swedish, so most here are out of luck until I find my Round Tuit (it got mislaid some time back) and translate it into English.

[1] People with thyroid disease, preganant women, children

 

[Kevin-burton]

Hi there, I'm currently building a slow\bio sand filter in my Devon woodland, to filter rain water,
essentially a 50 gallon barrel full of fine sand for filtering the water and 2x640 litre ibcs (1 as a header tank the other for the filtered water).
Technically it should produce drinkable water.
The hardest part was getting the fine silica sand for the filter, when you do eventually find a supplied you have to buy 1 tonne of the stuff !!!!

 

[mrcharly]

I'm not sure why you think you need to filter rainwater. How are you collecting it?

 

[Kevin-burton]

good question,
I guess the rain water could pick up some atmospheric pollution (but that not a major concern), its mainly the fact that
the water is off of of the roof of my felt roof shed,in the middle of a wood, so there will be lots of organic material bird poop\leaves\bugs, hydrocarbons from the shed etc.

I'm expecting the clean filtered water will store for much much longer then the unfiltered tank (be interesting to find out how long).

 

[mrcharly]

More of a concern is how you are storing it, how long it is being stored for, and what can grow in your stored water.

Best storage is in lightless tanks (completely lightless). Otherwise it needs to be thoroughly oxygenated water. Worst is lit but not well oxygenated water (that creates conditions that can grow nasty algae and bacteria). I'm mostly going by my experience of living on boats here.

If I were you I'd be inclined to use a filter (as in a commercial filter) on your water for drinking purposes, or boil it, unless you have a good turnover of the water. IBCs tend to be translucent and I think you'll get algal growth.

 

[Leshy]

Geeeeez... I've just read my previous posts.... 😱
Little ray of sunshine, ain't I ?!
😊

 

[mrcharly]

Geeeeez... I've just read my previous posts.... 
Little ray of sunshine, ain't I ?!


Well, check the state of reservoirs in Bolivia. Your posts aren't far out. Poor sods.

 

[Leshy]

Well, check the state of reservoirs in Bolivia. Your posts aren't far out. Poor sods.

Yes ,very true.
California is not fairing too well either with this endless drought...
What worries me is that our gov. has just fast tracked and snubbed local authorities to let the frackers loose in Britain...
What a shame, looking at the process for the extraction it just screams NO !
And the scary thing is that is IRREVERSIBLE...
Now that got me going again...

😤😤😊😊😤😤

Sorry...

 

[dewi]

Geeeeez... I've just read my previous posts.... ��
Little ray of sunshine, ain't I ?!
��

I would've replied earlier about the platinum/water swap, but you seemed a little agitated.

Thankfully you've calmed somewhat... oh hold on...

 

[Leshy]

I would've replied earlier about the platinum/water swap, but you seemed a little agitated.

Thankfully you've calmed somewhat... oh hold on...

Hahahah... I love your wit Mr. Dewi.
👍👍👍

 

[dewi]

Serious point though, if as a world we are to solve our water/food problem... self-sufficient water desalination plant combined with a greenhouse that grows without soil... whole lot works from solar power. Install a few thousand of these puppies around the Middle East, no more wars... a few around Africa, no more starvation... and a couple in Argentina, they might shut up about the islands.

 

[Leshy]

Dewi Sir, you surprise me with your optimism.
I'm not sure that water sufficiency and food security would end the wars in the middle East,
...without a shadow of a doubt that would improve the quality of life for millions , and it would also lift millions of people out of abject poverty , but being the cynical ******* that I am, I don't believe that alone would bring peace .

I do however agree with your point and see where you're coming from.
A few of the links I provided in my first ( the more sensible) posts are from sources that demonstrate a lot of the work being done already in townships and remote villages in the sub-saharan regions and other developing nations.

Permaculture is also emerging as a great alternative agricultural system , in that enables this self sufficiency , and allows for small holding farmers to break free from the "shackles" of corporate giants such as Monsanto.
With their endless cycle of dependency , GMO seeds, pesticides and monoculture based practices.

I hope you're right, and that someone finally finds a solution with the desalination process soon, for as far as I understand its a very costly and inefficient process at the moment.

 

[dewi]

Optimism has nowt to do with it, a team of international scientists have done something useful instead of just talking.

They've created a plant that runs off nothing but seawater and sun in South Australia, in a desert no less.

They grow 15,000 tonnes of tomatoes with no soil, using an ingenious system that uses the left over seawater from desalinisation. An amazing system that uses every ounce of energy to produce fresh water and food.

Now the Middle East, Israel has combated the water problem, they are prosperous. The rest of the Middle East, no water, war, war, war, with a side helping of war. Give them enough water, they'll be too busy farming to fight each other.

Africa, the warlords control the water holes.... remove the issue of water holes, no more problem.

Water is the issue I agree, but get Zuckerberg or someone like him to redirect their finances towards these desalination plants... the world will be a very different place. Pipelines of water travelling the globe and all of a sudden we have a productive human race rather than 2/3 of us starving, dying of thirst or killing each other for resources.

This is why I get so angry with the false science being manufactured over global warming, the science is flawed. The data is being manipulated to match computer models, instead of the computer models producing data to work with. Future generations will likely laugh at us, or cry that science has been so corrupted and the real profit, the profit for mankind, is overlooked for a problem that does not exist.

Worst case scenario, if global warming is real, surely somewhere to make fresh water would be helpful, somewhere to get food, also helpful. The science behind these plants needs to be exploited quickly and efficiently so the poorest can prosper. A few billion spent on this will be a whole lot better than a few billion spent on daft projects thought up by corrupt politicians.

I also have intelligent solutions to the world's energy crisis and a method to recycle existing nuclear waste that gives us thermal energy, but unfortunately I'm not a scientist, why would anyone be interested?

 

[Leshy]

Optimism has nowt to do with it, a team of international scientists have done something useful instead of just talking.

They've created a plant that runs off nothing but seawater and sun in South Australia, in a desert no less.

They grow 15,000 tonnes of tomatoes with no soil, using an ingenious system that uses the left over seawater from desalinisation. An amazing system that uses every ounce of energy to produce fresh water and food.

Now the Middle East, Israel has combated the water problem, they are prosperous. The rest of the Middle East, no water, war, war, war, with a side helping of war. Give them enough water, they'll be too busy farming to fight each other.

Africa, the warlords control the water holes.... remove the issue of water holes, no more problem.

Water is the issue I agree, but get Zuckerberg or someone like him to redirect their finances towards these desalination plants... the world will be a very different place. Pipelines of water travelling the globe and all of a sudden we have a productive human race rather than 2/3 of us starving, dying of thirst or killing each other for resources.

This is why I get so angry with the false science being manufactured over global warming, the science is flawed. The data is being manipulated to match computer models, instead of the computer models producing data to work with. Future generations will likely laugh at us, or cry that science has been so corrupted and the real profit, the profit for mankind, is overlooked for a problem that does not exist.

Worst case scenario, if global warming is real, surely somewhere to make fresh water would be helpful, somewhere to get food, also helpful. The science behind these plants needs to be exploited quickly and efficiently so the poorest can prosper. A few billion spent on this will be a whole lot better than a few billion spent on daft projects thought up by corrupt politicians.

I also have intelligent solutions to the world's energy crisis and a method to recycle existing nuclear waste that gives us thermal energy, but unfortunately I'm not a scientist, why would anyone be interested?

Most definitely Dewi.
It's a fascinating subject and very positive in the face of things...
Maybe it's time for a new thread ? 👍

 

[Kevin-burton]

I'm not planning on using it to drink, but it should be good for that, mainly washing up\showering when in the woods.
I agree, re sun light, the IBCS are black so should be fine, and will probably be insulated by straw bales,
my major concerns are: storage (no idea how long it would store for)
the bio layer freezing up, maintaining a constant flow through the filter all year round, even in wet North Devon my back of a fag pack calculation, based on average rain fall and size of roof, suggest a flow of 200ml per hour

To be honest this is a total experiment.

 

[dewi]

Most definitely Dewi.
It's a fascinating subject and very positive in the face of things...
Maybe it's time for a new thread ? ��

If you build, they will come

It is interesting, something I've been interested in for a long time. We don't exactly have a shortage of water in northern England, but with the south of England having a population explosion over recent years, it is more than possible that the desalination plants could be put to use on the south east coastline. Perhaps accompanied by a renewal/renovation of coastal defences as well, stop the land disappearing into the sea at the rate it is.