How to Purify Muddy Water

Turn water from a puddle into a safe and clean beverage.

Water is essential to our survival and it can be frightening to suddenly be without a safe and clean supply. Whether you've suffered a natural disaster or you're lost in the woods, there may come a time when mud puddles are your only source of drinking water. The cloudiest puddle water can be made clean and safe by using materials that are often found laying around outside. You can be drinking safe water in 15 minutes, without the silt and sediment from the puddle.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic bottle
• Knife
• Cotton fabric
• Gravel
• Sand
• Cup
• Pot
• Campfire

Instructions

1. Cut the bottom off of a plastic bottle. A 2 liter bottle is a good size, but you can be successful at this using a 20 oz. soda bottle or a can with holes poked near the bottom.

2. Wad up some cotton fabric and place it in the neck of your bottle. This will be the new bottom of your water filter. You can tear off a small part of a t-shirt for the fabric.

3. Add a 2 inch layer of gravel on top of the fabric. The fabric will hold back the gravel from falling out of the hole in the bottom of the bottle.

4. Fill the bottle with sand on top of the gravel. Stop adding sand when you are about 2 inches from the top of the filter.

5. Stand or lean the filter into a pot, so that the filtered water runs into the pot. Scoop up a cup of puddle water and pour it onto the sand in the filter. The sand will catch the solid particles that are floating in the water. Pour the same water back through the filter another time or two until it comes out clear.

6. Boil the water for 10 minutes over a campfire. Filtering removes the physical pieces of things that are floating in water, but water needs to be boiled to kill the germs that may still be present. After boiling, allow the water to cool before drinking.

Tips & Warnings

• Boiled water often tastes flat. You can fix this by pouring it back and forth between two cups or by placing it in a bottle with a cap and shaking the bottle. This will add air to the water, which improves the taste.

• This project is for use only in emergency situations.

References

• Wilderness Survival Skills: How to Make a Water Filter