Water Purification help in the Amazon

[Sten]

Originally Posted by xparallax

for what its worth ( i am currently in the amazon jungle (eugene oregon) writing this.) I am using various water sterilization chemicals as well as the msr ceramic filter,, the msr ceramic filter is very labor intensive and produces about a quart every 10 minutes. still occasionally get sick, but have cypro to counter act the worst of it..

My daily drinking water in Vanuatu (not the Amazon but a Jungle by any other name) came out of a river with livestock and humans up stream from me. I used a MSR "water works" aka "ceramic"filter for 2 years and it was fast and 100% reliable. I never got sick it, it required simple preventive maintenance and the filter never went down. I know this has nothing to do with the topic of the thread and I apologize for that but I could not let a bash on MSR go uncorrected.

[lssah2025]

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...sandfilter.jpg



Link for larger pic.

[Lowlight7]

I don't know what resources you have available in the area or in your financing, so here goes.

Have you considered SODIS (www.sodis.ch)? No frills but has the smallest equipment requirement. At the very least it's a temporary solution until a better method can be put in place.

WHO also has an extensive library of info on water disinfection for third world environments (http://www.who.int/household_water/resources/en/)

If it were me I'd bring a MIOX, gravity filter, and 3 cases of batteries.

[SRGross]

I have used the old system, Boil the Water, and let it hit a slightly tipped foil, pot cover into a cup or pot, nothing fancy, but it works, I use Bug Juice and Peanut butter mixed together, produces blue, smokleless flame, then there is always C4
Spent 3 yrs in Central and South America, never got sick from water, MREs are a different story

[Calvengeance]

A recent report I had to do on the viability of NASA's phenomenal budget led me to information about a nanomesh filter they've been using on the space station.

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2008/er_4.html

It seemed impressive to me, though at this point I really have no idea what I'm talking about. All I could glean was that, damn, 99.99% is pretty close to 100%, and 5 gallons per minute with gravity sounds pretty useful.

I just checked their website to see about pricing for you but it's down. Maybe it'll be up when you look.

http://www.seldontechnologies.com/


Good luck and I hope it works out for you. It's really interesting to read about this humanitarian aspect of Special Forces.

[SF_BHT]

Thanks All. I have built a system for them as stated but the additional info helps for any future upgrades to them. I have learned a lot from the high end to the low end basic systems. NASA has great things but they would never work in then amazon with filthy environmental effects.

[bost1751]

I recently pruchased the Lifesaver water purification bottle to use in the vacation spots I seem to end up in. Such as now, Bombay, one of the most poluted huge cities in the world with pretty bad water. i have used it since returning from a week back home. So far it has worked well. there is a slight hint of chlorine taste. it will save me huge on not purchasing bottled water here for my last 5 months.

[Golf1echo]

Looks like it has been covered..... The Bio Sand filters work well and can be built in different scales. The biology left on top of the sand does most of the work. If testing shows contaminates remaining you could purify the treated water unless it was chemically contaminated. Here is one example of many such filters which are used in remote 3rd world countries every day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YeNvglOd-I

Here is a better explanation and system I am more familiar with, perhaps one could even work with this org.? The only other thing I might suggest would be a silt tank if water source had high debris or silt content. A trough like tank that untreated water entered allowing settling to occur before water entered the filter would prolong the life of the unit. The diffusion element is important so as not to disturb the top layer when water is put into the filter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb0xf3mRbJM&NR=1