When engaging in outdoor adventures or extended trips, it’s essential to ensure an adequate water supply. If water becomes scarce, immediately use the outdoor knowledge you’ve learned on the Tanshilv Outdoor Adventure Travel Network to locate and collect water. Life cannot exist without water—without food, a normal person can survive for three weeks, but without water, survival is limited to just three days. Therefore, securing water should be your top priority:
1. In mountainous regions, valleys at the base of mountains are the best places to find water. In high-altitude areas, look along rock crevices; dry riverbeds and gravel areas often yield springs when dug.
2. On coastlines, dig a hole above the high-tide line—there may be a layer of filtered water about 5 cm thick floating on top of the denser seawater.
3. Before drinking water collected in hollows or depressions, always disinfect, settle, and then boil it.
4. Collecting rainwater: Dig a hole in the ground, line it with plastic sheeting, and enclose the sides with clay to effectively catch rainfall.
5. Condensed water: Cover a leafy branch with a plastic bag—the transpiration from the leaves will produce condensation inside.
6. Tracking animals, birds, insects, or human footprints can lead you to water sources.
7. Extracting water from plants: Hollow plants like bamboo often store water in their joints, vines may contain drinkable sap, and the fruits and stems of palms and cacti are rich in moisture.
8. Solar still: In arid desert regions, this method can help you gather water: Dig a pit about 90 cm wide and 45 cm deep in relatively moist ground. Place a container at the center of the pit’s bottom, and cover the pit with a plastic sheet that curves downward. The sun heats the moist soil and air, causing evaporation. Water vapor condenses on the underside of the plastic and drips into the container.
In the wild, avoid drinking water from streams flowing through weeds. However, clear water emerging from cliff cracks or rocks makes excellent drinking water. To purify river or lake water, dig a small pit about one to two meters from the water’s edge in sandy soil—the water that seeps into the pit will usually be cleaner than water taken directly from the source. If you’re in a mining area, be especially cautious and never drink water contaminated by mineral discharge. If you notice stones in a river that appear unusually reddish-brown or yellow, avoid drinking the water from that area.
But if you truly can’t find any drinkable water and are suffering from extreme thirst, here’s a very simple water collection method based on my own experience: First, place a plastic bag over a tree branch and tie the opening tightly. Due to temperature differences, moisture will evaporate from the tree. Once enough water accumulates, you can take it down and drink it. This method can yield about 15 kilograms of water per day. You can also collect dew using plastic sheeting. From midnight to dawn, as temperatures gradually drop, dew will accumulate—this can be a great relief for thirst. Monkeys and squirrels in forests often lick dew off leaves at dawn during drought seasons—you might want to try that too.
Outdoor Tip: The above methods for obtaining water are only temporary solutions and are quite labor-intensive. They are suitable for only a small group (3–7 people) over a short period (3–5 days), not for large groups or extended stays. For safety, it’s best not to venture more than one or two days away from a water source, and never venture alone into jungles or wilderness.
How to Purify and Disinfect Water Sources
Unpurified water often contains pathogens or decaying matter, and may even include heavy metal salts or toxic minerals. So, when you find a water source while extremely thirsty, don’t rush to drink it. Instead, purify and disinfect it based on the environmental conditions to prevent poisoning or illness. Otherwise, your physical strength may rapidly decline, exhausting you quickly and potentially putting your life at risk. Below are several simple and practical purification methods.
Filtration Method
If the water you find is muddy, contains floating debris, microorganisms, worms, or leech larvae, and digging a hole isn’t feasible, find a plastic bag (high quality, not easily torn), poke some small holes in the bottom, or use a cotton glove, handkerchief, sleeve, or pant leg. A cola bottle can also be used—remove the bottom, poke a few small holes in the cap, then fill it from the bottom up with 2–4 cm layers of clean, fine sand (5–7 layers total), pressing them down firmly. Slowly pour the unclean water into this makeshift filter. Once clean water begins to drip out from the bottom, collect it in a basin or kettle.
Percolation Method
If the water source is not clean, dig a hole about 50–80 cm deep and 1 meter in diameter, about 3–5 meters away from the water. Allow the water to naturally seep through the sand and soil. Then carefully extract the filtered water and transfer it to a storage container such as a box or kettle. Note: Don’t disturb the sediment at the bottom of the pit—keep the water clean.
Settling Method
After collecting the water, add a small amount of alum or mashed mulberry leaves, cactus, or walnut kernels. Stir well and let it sit for 30 minutes. This process will yield relatively clean water.
Seawater Desalination Method
At the seaside, if ion exchange resin desalination isn’t available, you can desalinate seawater by boiling it to collect distilled water. When boiling seawater, place a towel inside the lid of the pot to absorb condensed water droplets, then wring the water into a seashell or other container. Repeat the process until you have enough drinking water. In winter, you can freeze seawater in a container—the resulting ice can also serve as drinkable fresh water. Supplementary Tips
In the vast deserts and Gobi regions of northwest China, wherever there are plants, digging 4–5 meters deep will usually reach groundwater. However, the water is often brackish and undrinkable. Here’s how to handle it: In areas with damp sand or saline water, dig a 1.5-meter-diameter, 1-meter-deep sand pit. Cover it with a transparent plastic sheet, securing the edges with sand or stones, and place a small stone in the center to form an inverted cone shape with the plastic. Place a water collection container under the cone’s tip. Sunlight heats the sand pit, causing moisture to evaporate. The water vapor condenses on the plastic and drips into the container. This method can yield about 1.5 liters of distilled fresh water per day.
Generally speaking, aside from spring water and well water (deep underground), all other sources—rivers, lakes, streams, snowmelt, rainwater, dew—as well as water obtained via percolation, filtration, or settling—should ideally be disinfected before drinking. Add water purification tablets to the storage container, stir, shake, and let it sit for a few minutes before drinking. Typically, one tablet can disinfect 1 liter of water. Without purification tablets, you can use iodine tincture or bleach from a first-aid kit instead, though you’ll need to wait longer (20–30 minutes). If none of these are available, vinegar used for outdoor cooking can also work—add a bit to the purified water, stir, and let it sit for 30 minutes. The taste may be slightly acidic. If there are heavy metal salts or toxic minerals in the water, outdoor explorers can boil it with strong tea, but remember not to drink the sediment.
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