In an emergency having clean drinking water is vital to your survival. If your emergency supply runs out you need to know how to purify water. To do that you have three options 

1. Boiling 

2. Distillation 

3. Chlorination 

Boiling water is probably the safest way overall that you can clean water and make it suitable to drink. Whatever means you have in a disaster to boil water doesn’t matter. What matters is that the water once it boils it does so for at least a minute to kill any bacteria in the water. Let it cool down before drinking. You can also improve its taste by pouring the water back and forth between two clean containers to put oxygen back in it. This also works for any water that you’ve stored as well. 

If you’re still concerned that the water you boiled isn’t safe to drink you can distil your water. While boiling will kill off bacteria there could still be other heavy metals, chemicals, or other contaminants that could make your drinking water unsafe. Distillation involves bringing water to a boil but instead of using that water you instead collect the vapour. 

To distil water do the following 

1. Fill a pot half full of water 

2. Take a lid from a pot and a clean cup. Tie the cup to the lids handle so that the lid is upside down over your pot and holding the cup in place. 

3. Bring the water to a boil; make sure the cup doesn’t touch the boiling water.

4. Let the water boil for about 20 minutes. The steam will condense on the lid and run down into your cup, this water will be distilled and free not only of harmful bacteria, but other contaminants as well. 

If you can’t boil water you can clean it using household liquid bleach. You want to make sure that the bleach you use isn’t scented, color safe, or has any other added cleaners, and contain only about 5.25 to 6.0 percent sodium hypochlorite. You also want to use bleach that is either brand new or just opened since its properties will diminish over time. 

Once you have the right type of bleach you want to add about 8 drops per gallon if the water is clear in color. If the water is cloudy in color you want to double that to about 16 drops or about 1/8 teaspoon. Give it a good shake for about a minute or so and let stand for about 30 minutes. You should notice a slight bleach odour. If it doesn’t repeat the first step and let stand for an additional 15 minutes. After this if there still isn’t a slight bleach odour then get rid of it and find another water source. 

Another method is to use a portable water purification system. There are dozens of different styles and types to choose from. I’ve listed a few of these types below. If your looking into one of these make sure you do your research to determine which one fits your needs.