Water, Water Everywhere and Nothing to Drink

OrphanApology
The basic idea is that the higher the altitude the lower the boiling point in regard to temperature. When you increase the pressure on the water by placing it in a sealed container you raise the temperature needed to boil the water.

In very high altitudes water boils at lower temperature which means it won't sufficiently kill bacteria. That's why when canning food for safety reasons it's best to use pressure canning because botulism spores need temperatures higher than 212 to die.

So essentially - when decontaminating water by simply boiling in high altitudes would take longer as well. Thanks!

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


No it wouldn't work at all unless you pressurize it.

Water at higher altitudes boils at lower temperatures, it wouldn't matter if you left it for five or twenty minutes. Without increasing the pressure the water would evaporate without ever reaching the temperature needed to kill contaminants.

Actually water boils faster at higher altitudes but depending on how high it doesn't cook anything because the temperature is too low.

reply to post by OrphanApology


Bummer! So without a pressure cooker - how about eating melted snow? And in high altitudes without snow, and no pressure cooker, then what?

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


Snow is 90% air and 10% water...ice is 90% water and 10% air.
If you can get it....melt ice first.

(in normal conditions....not elevated conditions)

If a person does drink coconut water, it should be from brown-skinned, mature coconuts. The water from green coconuts has still a lot of immature plant matter, and the water can indeed cause diarrhea, as ATA said. Even with brown coconut husks, a person should take the coconut water slowly and let your body acclimate to the oils.

Coconut water is sterile until exposed to the air, and then it ferments very quickly, like in a matter of hours, and smells horrible after it has fermented. Drinking fermented coconut water is a sure way to get the trots.

After the husk is removed, coconuts have three "eyes". Usually the largest one is somewhat softer than the other two; it can also be the one that appears to be a little convex. That is the "eye" in which the plant would eventually grow through, and it's much easier to poke a tool through to get to the coconut water. The water inside is under a bit of pressure, and makes a faint hiss when the eye is opened. Some coconuts hold as much as sixteen ounces of water, and once a body is used to it, can be consumed in fairly large quantities without fearful consequences.

Note: coconut water -- having a lot of potassium -- is usually not recommended for those with kidney problems.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


Well if you can't figure out how to build a simple sealed container then your other option is bleach drops.

If you build a distillery it's possible the water vapor would still have bacteria/viruses as the boiling point is lower. The distillery would remove the other contaminants such as dirt etc. but the boiling process wouldn't kill the bacteria.

As far as eating snow, it would probably be safer than a contaminated river but it's still just frozen water. The only safe way it to have use high pressure boiling. If not, bleach drops are another bet.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


Great thread flagged and starred.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam

1 pound of calcium hypochlorite can treat up to 10,000 gallons of water! It comes in powder form with which you can make a solution that will disinfect water much like the MSR purifier MIOX or something like that.... it lasts longer than regular bleach, which starts to lose its efficiency more quickly. It's Pool Shock stuff. Not expensive. Sometimes in the desert, there is just not much water available for condensation due to the dryness of the air so you can't expect to get much from the sunken pit with plastic over the hole method. Do NOT try to drink cactus juice. Only a very few types can that be done with and the rest will realllly ruin your day. Of course, the people in the Philippines are often poor, but there are filters that will allow you to drink salt water after filtering, found in many good ship's life raft stores. I believe it uses a reverse osmosis method.

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


Good way to give your body a copper overdose but if you are desperate I suppose you could try it.

reply to post by DrumsRfun


This is not a good way, you will really harmful chemicals from the plastic when you heat it up. I guess if you were absolutely desperate you could do this. How ever, this should not be a regular practice or long term survival solution.

Trexter Ziam
Bummer! So without a pressure cooker - how about eating melted snow? And in high altitudes without snow, and no pressure cooker, then what?

You don't need a pressure cooker to make water safe for drinking. Pasteurization temp is actually 60ºC (for 20min, IIRC). You should be able to reach this temp even at 9,000 m (higher than Everest at 8,850m) which would be in the 70s.

I think that boiling is just a foolproof way of knowing that that temp has been passed without a measuring device.

there more of a second world country so really they'll be fine eventually. It would be easy to collect rain water there as it rains probably almost daily there.

Swimming pools. Get your own or know where the nearest one is. I didn't get a pool for the emergency water but after it was filled up I realized that I had 10,000 gallons of fresh water just in case. I have only had to use it to flush toilets during a power outage so far (we have an electric well pump), but was I glad I had it for that! Four days without bathing isn't too bad - but without flushing the house would have to be abandoned!