No Potable Water

[CFlyer]

There is a thread about drinking urine and some have argued that it is not good to drink urine. What do we do then when the potable water is gone and we are in wild where there is no body of water nearby?

[Morgan]

Fruits naturally have water to replenish what you have lost. If you know how to distinguish fruits in the wild then you won't have problems replenishing your body with liquids.

[Stoker]

There are tablets available that sterilize water, although I don't know if it would sterilize human urine that well though. Many plants and fruits do have liquids in them though.

[Michael]

You can make one or more solar stills to get water.

They're not really complicated, although it's some work to build one. You dig a hole a couple feet across and a couple of feet deep. Put a cup in the center of the bottom, then a tube through which you could drink water so that one end is in the cup and the other is well outside the hole. Cover the hole with clear plastic so that it drapes down near the bottom but not touching it. Put a small stone on the plastic sheet so that it's just above the center of the cup. Cover the edges of the sheet with dirt or sand so that it's as close to air tight as you can get.

Sunlight shines through the plastic and heats up the ground. This will cause water to evaporate. It then condenses onto the plastic sheet and drips off the lowest point and into your cup. Drink from the tube without disturbing the seal around the outside.

You can increase the amount of water you collect by urinating into the pit. You can also throw in rotten fruit, dead animals, or whatever else contains any water you can't drink. The water evaporates, so it doesn't carry bacteria, viruses, salts, or the nasty stuff in spoiled food. You get pure water at the end of the process.

Just make sure there's nothing like anti-freeze or gasoline in the hole. It will also evaporate and condense with the water.

This doesn't produce a ton of water or do it terribly quickly. You'll probably need a couple of the things per person, and you'll eventually need to dig new ones as all the moisture goes from the old ones. Don't expect it to be easy or to have way more water than you'll need, but it can be enough to keep you alive in the absence of other water sources.

You can also use this as a way to purify nasty water, like from a swamp. Just pour a bunch of the nasty water into the hole before you close it up, or dig down until the hole has some water in the bottom.

[hikingprincess]

Michael that sounds kind of difficult and a little nasty. Especially the part about urinating or throwing rotten fruit into the hole. I am assuming if we don't have potable water we probably don't have a cup, a tube and a shovel but I could be wrong. I would say finding some fruits or plants that store water is your best option. You could also try collecting rain water depending on the weather.

[Paige]

I don't think I could stand to drink it unless I was so near death I had to. I guess if you got to that point though, you could drink animal blood if you had to. The dead animals and urine part gets to me! *shudder*

[Michael]

You don't strictly speaking need the tube. It just lets you access the water without needing to unmake and remake your solar still each time you get the water.

And when I say cup, I really mean anything that has an open top that will hold water. A water bottle will work, as would an empty metal can such as you might have used for food. It would even work if you took another small piece of plastic sheeting and pressed it into a smaller hole within the large hole.

As to it being nasty, it's really not. Bacteria, viruses, rancid fat, salts, and many toxic chemicals won't evaporate with the water, thus leaving you with pure, clean, fresh water at the end. You mostly need to avoid pouring gasoline or radiator fluid in there, because those will evaporate with the water.

This is actually a very safe and clean way to get water. It's better than drinking animal blood (which can have parasites and diseases). It even works a little bit in the desert.

If tossing animals etc in squicks you, you could instead throw a bunch of leaves in there. Leaves have plenty of moisture that a solar still can pull out. Just replace them with fresh, juicy leaves every couple of days and you should be good.

[dinosaur]

Michael is correct. I have made a solar still. It works. And, bear in mind that the water is distilled by the sun. It is quite pure.

[Fox38]

Someone was talking about drinking urine? Seriously? I've never heard of this before ever. I agree I would get the water and liquids from berries and try to collect rain water.