WHY WE NEED WATER
First and foremost we need to define why we need to know how to purify water in order to understand how important it is to have purified water on hand or available at all times. Sometimes it can become unavailable and that is when we need to know how to purify it.
- 1Regulates Body Temperature
- 2Protects Body Tissue
- 3Aids in Digestion
- 4Prevents Dehydration
1. Water regulates your body temperature and this is a necessary thing for survival when one is exposed to the elements. People who are without water and are exposed to very low temperatures freeze to death quicker than those who have water. The upper end of this also applies. If you are exposed to extreme heat without water you will not last long because when you sweat you loose your body fluids that are essential for survival.
2. Water protects our body tissue! Water lubricates and cushions our joints and spinal cord. So, you can see how important this is.
3. When being drunk during meals, water helps with the digestion of foods by breaking down the foods consumed more easily.
4. Water prevents dehydration. Dehydration occurs when you don' get enough water to drink. This can be a very dangerous thing to encounter!
If you go long enough without water you can have severe complications such as:
As you can see, there are some serious reasons you need to have a fresh water supply available to you or a way to purify water if it isn't fresh.
There are many reasons why you might not be in a position to have fresh water available to drink. Many of us have never been outside of a sheltered life and can not phantom not having fresh water available to us. Many or us have seen the TV shows and movies with all kinds of dangers involved including lack of water in desert or mountain situations.
In most instances, the person or persons live through the event. In real life, there are a number of people who die yearly because they are either in a situation where water has been cut off from them or they have been put into an emergency by a bit of bad luck or poor decisions they make.
So, just how much water do you need to drink a day to stay healthy? According to the Mayo Clinic,
Water Fact:
The average person can only last on average, 3 - 5 days without water. You go a long time without food but you just can't make it without water! Be prepared!
Did you know that about 70% of the world is covered with water? Looking at this, one would think that water would always be plentiful everywhere but it isn't!
Only about 3% of this water that covers our planet is fresh water and about 2% of that is unattainable such as frozen glaciers and such!
Amazing isn't it!
How do you know if you are getting dehydrated?
This list is just 4 of the more common things that accompany symptoms of dehydration.
1. Dehydration causes the pressure in your blood vessels to drop and this causes headaches and brain fog!
2. A lack of water can cause tiredness and sleepiness. Many times when you see athletes just tired out, it is from dehydration instead of muscle exertion.
3. A lack of water can cause the blood to begin to thicken and this will cause the blood pressure to spike. This causes the blood flow to slow down. This has been linked to heart disease also!
4. One of the top 20 remedies for constipation is increasing your water intake on a daily basis. Water helps aid in the processing of your food and keeps your digestive track clean also!
How To Purify Water!
1: Up to 6,000 feet above sea level, you can boil water for one minute at a rolling boil to purify it. We always recommend if you get the water from a stream, pond, lake, etc, you need to filter it with something. A coffee filter, paper towel, old tee shirt, etc. Anything that will allow water to pass through and filter out the sediments will work. Strain it a few times to get out all you can.
2: Using chlorine bleach like Clorox. If you are going to be using bleach to disinfect water, you need to buy regular, unscented chlorine bleach with an active ingredient of between 6 and 8.25 percent of sodium hypochlorite. Don't use scented stuff, just regular chlorine bleach. You would want to purchase a small dropper bottle to be sure to get the correct amount of bleach for your container. Most suggestions that I have read say, six drops of 8.25 percent chlorine bleach to one gallon of water. Mix well, Allow to set at least 30 minutes before tasting. Adjust bleach or water if necessary.
3. Water Purification Straws or Filters: We purchased some of the Life Straws and these will purify 624 gallon of water per straw. That is a lot of water! We were able to find them for $25.00 a pair online. We also purchased The Sawyer MINI Water Filter. It is rated to 0.1 micron absolute, weighs only 2 ounces, and filters up to 100,000 gallons! The MINI removes 99.99999% of all bacteria, such as salmonella, cholera and E.coli; removes 99.9999% of all protozoa, such as giardia and cryptosporidium.
Be sure to identify water supplies even if they are not fresh at the time. If you get in an emergency situation, you can purify your water and make it safe too drink but be careful to follow all precautions so you do not get sick.
You can enjoy our Video on this subject below.
