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Successful Ways to Accomplish Emergency Water Treatment
By DavePF | July 2, 2009
In the aftermath of natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina which pummeled New Orleans in 2005, the most important need of the people who live there is fresh, clean water. Sadly, natural disasters can destroy municipal water treatment facilities and contaminate water supplies with everything from bacteria to industrial waste rendering it unsuitable for human consumption. Although cities are required to have emergency water treatment plans in place for just such occurrences, it’s still a good practice to develop your own emergency water treatment plan just in case the unthinkable should take place.
You will want to start by knowing the types of problems you could be up against. Contaminated water can be filled with three different types of pathogens (disease-causing organisms) as well as toxic chemicals. The pathogen category can be divided into protozoan parasites, toxic bacteria, and harmful viruses. Waterborne pathogens are derived from animal and human waste which is washed down into drinking water sources. Chemicals can come from industrial or storage spills as well as from chemicals used to control pests and weeds. Emergency situations merely exacerbate conditions that are there all the time.
Large-sized contaminants can be removed from water as simply as by draining the water through a paper towel or coffee filter into a clean container. Bacteria and viruses, however, are much too small to be effectively filtered from water using this method. Emergency water treatment plans, therefore, must include some variety of disinfectant that can eliminate these microorganisms. Iodine is probably the most effective disinfectant for water, much more efficient than the chlorine used in swimming pools. Protozoa, on the other hand, do not respond well to iodine. Therefore, you will need some kind of effective filtering system to get rid of these pathogens. Even though boiling is the most effective method for eliminating protozoa from drinking water, if there are power outages boiling may not be an option.
Toxic chemicals don’t have to cause the immediate health risks that pathogens do, but they can still damage healthy body cells and lower your immunity so that you are more readily-susceptible to disease. If the water is murky and appears to have been contaminated, you must not drink it until it has been detoxified. Water is vital to the human body, though, so it’s important that you be able to have access to or come up with a source of fresh water quickly following a natural disaster. You can survive for several weeks if you don’t have food, but you’ll only live a few days if you don’t have water. Therefore, it’s crucial that you have an emergency water treatment plan so that you’re ready for whatever may happen.
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