During Extended Emergency Water filters are not Enough | emergency water supply

In the article “8 Fastest Ways to purify water” posted on the urban survival site Alan does a good job of explaining different water purification options.  Many articles cover why water is essential to survival so suffice to say you need water and can only survive a few days without it.

Surface water degrades quickly

Filters are an essential part of survival kits.   The problem is that once a disaster occurs the water available to filter can degrade quickly.  I have seen this with raw sewage, fuel and chemical spills that often occur after earthquakes, hurricanes and tidal waves.  This can force you to travel further through increasingly dangerous conditions to find safe water.

Is your filter good enough?

If you are anywhere near other people they are adding unknown contaminants to the water.

Railroads, industrial areas, Refineries, mines and  manufacturing areas are even higher risk.

You don’t really know what is in the water so it is difficult to know:

1. What needs to be filtered out of the water.
2. Is  your filter is good enough
3. Will  chemicals in the water will eat the filter membrane.
4. Will pollutants clog or ruin your filter.
5. How long will your filter last with this water.
6. Is it safe to travel to the water.

This can be extremely stressful because if the filter is not good enough you can quickly sicken or die.   If the water ruins your filter then you are left in a position of trying something  less effective or taking a chance drinking contaminated water.  Boiling and pasteurization just will not work for some chemicals and fuel to boil water will rapidly become scarce when entire populations try to boil their water.

Exposure is a major risk.  Carrying water creates exposure

Another problem is that it can  become dangerous towalk to the water source and heavy to carry water  back.   I know that I would be hesitant to walk twice a day for a few miles through other hungry desperate people to carry back 50 pounds of water needed for 2 people to survive.

If things break down over an extended period of time I would expect to eventually be mugged for my nice filter and water jugs.  Needless to say, this mugging would not help my chances of survival.

Producing Water at home without grid dependency may be a better option.

It may be better to have a water source that can deliver water at your house by harvesting it from the air.  Most Atmospheric Water generator devices require grid electricity which is unlikely to be available after a disaster.

emergency water supply

You want a solution that will continue to deliver water when municipal water is not available or is contaminated. You need a solution that will continue to work when there is no grid power.

Air Solar Water is immune to surface water contamination

I invested years designing and testing  AirSolarWater.com, A device that harvests potable water from the air using only solar energy.  It will continue to produce water for decades as long as there is sun.

AirSolarWater draws the moisture from the air so it doesn’t need any source water.   This makes it immune to surface water contamination that would rapidly destroy just about any filter.

AirSolarWater eliminates the need to travel to obtain the water which reduces exposure that is possibly the greatest survival risk.

Preparing for for the Silent Disaster

If the USA has many repeats of the Flint disaster AirSolarWater may be good option since it’s water is independent of the city water supply. If Flint proved any single point,  it is that our public officials are not always  quick to admit to major health risks and even slower to fix them.

The question becomes how to manage exposure risk after the problem occurs and before it is admitted and publicized.  This is where AirSolarWater is ideal since it can provide very clean water independent of the mistakes made by local officials.

Emergency water supply to be prepared

I want to believe the Flint fiasco is a exception and that dedicated  officials in the USA will act rapidly to eliminate this kind of problem.   The challenge is determining whether a given person is located in the area with trustworthy officials or if they are unlucky enough  to be surrounded by the kind of officials that caused the Flit crisis.  Since telling the difference is nearly impossible having a independent source of water makes sense.

Designed for harsh conditions in India and Africa

I designed AirSolarWater to deliver water in rural Africa, India and Middle East where there is poor infrastructure and where women and children are forced to walk for miles to obtain water.

These requirements produced a tough and resilient  product and make it a good component of survival plans for emergencies in the USA.

Portable filters are sill needed

Storing 72 hours of water and portable filters are still essential in survival kits because they are easy to take with you if you must flee.  For survive in place scenarios AirSolarWater seems like a good long term option that can provide safer water at lower exposure risk than visiting the local river.

Thanks Joe Ellsworth CTO of AirSolarWater 

I invested  over a decade working on water solutions  designed for areas where wells are failing,  There is no ground water available and where there is little or no infrastructure.  I have talked with people facing a wide variety of water problems from all over the world.    I am an engineer and principal distributed systems architect by training.  I have spent a 30 year career filtering through noise, bad diagnosis,  political positioning, inaccurate requirements, finger pointing and bad engineering to find root cause problems and then delivering cost effective solutions.     Sometimes these solutions require new technology but just as often they require changing processes or the way people think about the problem.

I sincerely hope that we never face a large enough disaster in the USA that a combination of FEMA and the Red Cross are unable to deliver safe water to everybody affected.  In that case we will be perfectly happy selling AirSolarWater for remote dry cabins, mining sites and other places where water is difficult to obtain.

Also Posted on: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/filters-during-extended-emergency-enough-joe-ellsworth?trk=pulse_spock-articles

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