Are my search skills so poor that I can't find info on this here, or is it just not mentioned once in the survival forum? I'm alive so I assume it works, at least in my few trials.
Need to lay off the 10.5% Belgian ales, or black ops online. One of 'em is making me crazy.
Well, jimminy christmas, what the heck is it? SODIS, i don't have a clue what that means. Let's get some content here, me and SJ can't be the only noobs who know what's up here.
When simple sh1t can keep you alive and biting it should be common knowledge.
SODIS= SOlar water DISinfection. Ever see those ultraviolet water purifiers, they shine UV rays into the water and it kills all the little nasties in the water? SODIS uses the same process, but instead of an electric UV source you use good old free sunlight. Cleaned clear plastic water and soda bottles, up to 2 liter size are filled with suspect water and placed in the sun for several hours to disinfect them. Water with suspended particles will need to be filtered first, but rudimentary filters can be easily improvised.
As I read up on it, I think solar heat generated is a prime disinfectant, along with the UV. The fact they recommend placing water bottles on corrugated rooftops is what leads me to this conclusion.
Not perfect, but much better than nothing I guess. If needs be, I'd do it and feel good about it.
I've used this process multiple times and it works. Well, at least I didn't get sick from drinking putrid looking water that I assumed would give me the sh1ts really bad. T-shirt filter, coffee filter (the forever to filter a little bit of water filter) and even a few straight up "leave all of gods goods" drinks. I don't have any corrugated steel laying around so I layed the bottles verticle on roof shingles. Pretty hot but non reflective, I'd guess between 150 and 200 degrees for dirty water. A little less for clean looking water. Never tried it in cold weather, wonder how it would go at freezing temps.
Now I'm gonna end up trying it tomorrow. Over in the woods at my usual dirty water hole it's pretty iced up but all the solids make it kinda mushy even at about 10 degrees F. The snow isn't melting off the roof but I'll try it, I think the solar radiation is a bigger part of the whole deal. I'll get some pics if I do it, but if I get the runs I'm posting that too so be prepared.
Plastic bottles weigh nothing and they cover the earth, pretty close after a knife on my list of crap to have.
Saw a blaring example of when SODIS should be used. I watched an episode of man vs wild (I know) where he was near Panama I believe. He made a raft and was floating towards Panama (I think). He went to a small island covered in bird feces and found a puddle of stank water, almost a bird dropping mud. He collected it in a plastic water bottle, which I can understand.
Me? I would have filtered it as much as possible through my shirt or sock and let it sit in the sun, he was drifting all day. Good to go, for the conditions.
Bear Grylls? Grab a hose (magically appeared) and give yourself an enema with the stank water while citing some bizzare sea disaster (disASSter) where people adrift had to do the same thing with rainwater collected in the bottom of their boat that had turtle blood and guts in in.
That show is a riot to watch. Have you ever stripped down to your underwear and swam across a lake that was just above freezing to save a mile of walking? Me neither.
One thing to watch for is that the location of the bottle in the sun can be a concern. You can actually have a prism effect that can catch the grass behind it on fire. At least one forest fire has been attributed to a prism effect from a discarded water bottle. Highly unlikely to happen, true, but worth keeping in mind.
I'm not sure why anyone would prefer taking the time to wait on UV rather than just boiling the water for 5 minutes. Hate to say it, but my survival equipment includes a metal Sierra Cup, at a minimum.
There are times that you do not have fire, or do not want to risk exposure with a fire. SODIS works with or without fire.
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