You may have seen television shows of people trying to survive in a difficult situation and they may have made a makeshift water filter.
The first thing you would want to consider in this type of survival position would be the quality of the water you are trying to filter.
In a survival situation, clean drinkable water is one of the most important things you will need to stay alive. If you do not have drinking water with you, or you have run out of water, then it will need to be a priority that you find water as soon as possible.
You would want to find water that is clear as possible. You don’t want the water to be cloudy or muddy looking. Do not use any type of sewage water you may find in a homestead farm or runoff water that might be polluted. You can smell the water and if it smells like it might have some sort of chemical in it then you will for sure pass this water source for non-use.
Ideally, you will want to find clear running water that looks and smell fairly clean. If you can boil the water before you drink it that would be the best option before you filter it. In extreme survival conditions, there is a technique of saving urine and distilling the water out of it, and drinking it. I have seen this process on survival shows and it is not a pleasant thing to witness. Do you think you would give this a try? Personally, I don’t think I would like to try this but I would if my circumstances called for it.
Before you begin to filter water there is a list you will need to make sure you know about. With just a few items you can begin your project of making a decent water filter that could help you stay alive.
Here is what you will need.
- A used plastic water bottle
- Something to catch the filtered water
- The fabric of some kind. Your shirt will work.
- Coffee filter or another piece of fabric with bigger holes
- Charcoal (get some from your old fire)
- Sand
- Gravel
Nex Follow These Steps…
(1 )Cut The Bottom
You can use your knife or a sharp object to cut and remove the bottom of your used water bottle. Inside the bottle toward the cap end of the bottle is the area to place your loose cloth or fabric.
(2) Make The Drain Hole
If there is no cap on your used water bottle then you will want to cut the cap end top of the water bottle as mentioned in step one. Poke a hole in the water bottle cap if you have one. If you do not have a cap then poke a hole in the bottom of the water bottle right below where you stuffed your cloth or fabric. You can post a few small holes to help more water flow through the filter quicker.
(3) Layer One – Fabric Or Filter Paper
Push your fabric or filter paper toward the end you have poked the draining holes in. This could be the water bottle cap or the bottom of the water bottle. If you don’t have a piece of fabric you can cut a small piece from your shirt. For extreme cases, you can even use small pieces of grass. Use grass that is close to your water source or far away from any manmade areas. Grass around road areas could have chemicals on the grass that could be harmful. Make sure you know what type of grass you are using.
(4) Break Charcoal
Break pieces of charcoal from your fire if you have made one. Make sure they are not hot. How do you like my charcoal humor? Funny right? You can also use Brickett coal pieces but make sure they are not the kind with chemicals on them. Just the regular will do in this case. You can use a hammer, stick, rock, or even your knife to crush them into small as pieces much as possible without it becoming a powder.
(5) Layer Two – Charcoal Pieces
For this second layer, you will want to add about three inches on top of the first layer you placed in the bottle. If you have another piece of cloth you can place it on top of the charcoal. The cloth will keep the charcoal in place while you are using the filter.
(6) Layer Three – The Fine Sand
For this layer, you will have to add very fine sand. Place about two to three layers of fine sand inside the bottle on top of the second layer. Do not add highway department sand because it might have chemicals in it as well. You don’t want to drink that for sure. It could even have salt in it and would not make for very good-tasting water.
(7) Layer Four – The Coarse Sand
For this layer, you will want to add two or three inches of coarse sand on top of the third layer. You can use very small pebbles if you have them. If you don’t then the coarse sand will work just as well. The size of the small pebbles should be about BB size.
(8) Layer Five – More Fine Sand
For this fifth layer, you will want to add two to three inches of fine sand again on top of the fourth layer. This fifth layer will help keep particulates out of your drinking water. Multiple layers of fine sand will work better than just one layer of fine sand.
(9) Layer Six – Add The Gravel
On the sixth layer, you need to add two to three inches of small rocks or gravel on top of the fifth layer. The gravel on this layer will help the previous layer of fine sand stay in place as the filter is used.
(10) Strainer On Top
For this step, you can use another piece of cloth to put over the top of the bottle where you will pour water into. This cloth will help keep large debris out. You can fasten the cloth to the bottle if you have a rubber band.
(11) Pour The Water
For this step just pour water in the bottle through the cloth you placed on top. You will want to pour water into the bottle slowly so it does not overflow out of the bottle. Be careful not to spill unfiltered water into your collection container. Do this over your water collection container. Of course, you will want to make sure your collection container is very clean.
(12) Boil Your Water
For this final step, you will want to boil the water you collected. Your filter could still release microbes into your drinking water so sterilizing your water is very important. You can place your filtered water in sunlight to help sterilize it if you do not boil it.
For more detailed instructions see the download below.
Get The Download Guide To Emergency Water Filter Instructions
In Conclusion
I hope you found this information helpful. If you are ever in a situation where you need an emergency water filter, these instructions could help you survive a little easier. Please let me know what you think about this information. If you have tried this water filter before I would love to get your feedback on it here to share with others.
