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When camping, access to water is one of the most important aspects of a camp site. After all, after a long day of hiking, everyone is thirsty and no one wants to have to go very far to get a drink. But even if you are right next to a stream, you still have one hurtle you must clear in order to replenish your liquids-the water has to be made safe. Ingesting water straight from a mountain stream is a great way to end up with giardiasis, or “beaver fever.” This disease is a common cause of gastroenteritis in humans, and it can result in some fairly nasty symptoms. So in an effort to avoid explosive diarrhea (told you the symptoms were nasty), a responsible hiker needs to treat water before drinking it. Fortunately, thanks to modern science and technology, this is fairly easy to accomplish.

The first approach to ensuring safe drinking water is also the oldest and simplest-just boil the water. This tactic has been used for hundreds, probably thousands, of years. The bacteria that cause beaver fever cannot survive in water that has reached boiling temperature. In order to be sure that all bacteria have been killed, bring the water to a rolling boil and keep it that way for at least one minute. There are both advantage and disadvantages to this method of making water safe. While it is cheap, requiring only a fire and a pot, it is also fairly time consuming. It also presupposes that you have the ability to create a fire, which is not always the case. Therefore, it is best not to rely on boiled water when hiking.

A second method of creating safe drinking water when camping is to use iodine tablets. This method is my personal favorite, because it is both simple and quick. Iodine tablets are very small, about the size of an Aspirin, and they are easily purchased at any outdoor equipment store. To purify water, simply drop in a pill and wait the amount of time recommended on the bottle; that’s it. Iodine tablets are great because they’re simple, effective, fairly inexpensive and easy to carry. However, the iodine does leave a discernable aftertaste, which some people find unpalatable. Also, iodine tablets do nothing about any dirt, algae or other foreign matter that may be floating around in the water.

Water filters consist of a hand pump and an intake hose. When the pump is utilized, the hose draws water from the stream and forces it through an internal filtering element. This element traps and removed bacteria that can cause illness. These devices come in a variety of shapes, sizes and costs, although somewhere in the range of $75 is about average. Water purifiers have the advantage of being very effective and fairly easy to use. They do take up more space in a backpack, but they are also quite lightweight.

Finally, water purifiers operate on the same principle as water filters. The main difference is that in addition to removing bacteria, purifiers can also render them inactive using an additional chemical or electrostatic process. That way, anything remaining in the water will at least be harmless. Purifiers, like filters, take up some space in a backpack and are fairly lightweight, but purifiers tend to be more expensive than filters, usually somewhere in the neighborhood of $125.

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