BOB Water Procurement

[Kelly Alwood]

Continueing with my small, light, and multipurpose mandates for bug out gear, lets look at viable options for obtaining a healthy supply of water in a tough time.
Water is second on our list of survival priorities, second only to shelter. So, this means it is important enough for me to have more than one tool to get this done. I would NEVER rely on only one way to obtain water. Because, we are talking about potable water. This needs found, gathered, filtered, and then purified. Finding water is up to skill and knowledge, there is nothing I could tell you to pack to help with that except a map of your AO.
That puts us to gathering. For this I have a couple things on hand. One, I have a small pump fliter. Second, I have a 4'x4' tarp, and/or a large industrial clear garbage bag. With this, I can make several types of solar stills. And we can all see the multi use of these for other tasks as well. With these we can obtain water in the desert. Next I have a piece of gear that is called a "recon wrap". It has many purposes, one of wich is to soak, or sop up water from different sources. Dew on rocks, grass etc. This item also can be used as part of my improvised water filter system. This is also the item I would use to distill salt water if that was all that was available. Without a commercial filter, the only way to purify water for drinking is to boil it. This takes us to fire.
With these small, light, multipurpose, and inexpensive items, we can assure ourselves a supply of potable water anywhere. Of course, if we know we will be in a specific area, i.e. dessert or near salt water, we would pack extra of some things. This should get you thinking along the right lines.

[Kelly Alwood]

My friend has just procured a commercial solar still for me to try out. I will be testing this in the next few weeks and will report back on the use, cost, and effectiveness of these for our preparation kits.