The summer of 2022 saw records broken for the maximum temperatures recorded in many parts of the UK. That scorching experience served to remind us of the critical importance of hydration – and what you can do if you’re caught out without that life-saving access to drinking water.
Hydration
Drinking water is the most efficient way of keeping your body hydrated – and your body needs to be hydrated for all your bodily functions to work. In a posting on the 18th of July 2022, National World reiterated that advice, suggested how much water you might need to drink, and warned that those needs will increase dramatically if you are exerting yourself or in the middle of a heatwave.
Dehydration is what happens when your body loses more fluids than it is taking in. This is more likely to occur when you exert yourself or in hot weather, of course, because you will be losing fluids through the simple process of sweating.
If you lose the normal volume of water needed by your body – which makes up two-thirds of your total weight – this disturbs the critical balance of salts, sugars, and other minerals that are necessary for your organs to work properly.
How much water must I drink?
It’s a lot. The NHS advises drinking 1.5 to 2 litres of water a day. But some medical opinion doubles that volume and puts your target at 3 litres a day.
That poses one of the biggest challenges if you are on the move or holed up in a temporary place of shelter during a natural or manmade crisis or emergency – 3 litres is quite a volume and will weigh 3 kg (roughly 13.2lb) plus the weight of the container.
Carrying it
Flasks and bottles made from a special plastic called Nalgene are probably the first choice for anyone needing to carry supplies of drinking water with them. Nalgene has proven to be a very versatile material for this purpose and will keep its shape even if you fill it with water that you’ve just boiled to make it drinkable.
A 1-litre, wide-mouthed bottle is easy to carry and drink from. Your problem is that you’ll need to carry several bottles.
That problem can be solved by opting for a hydration reservoir – a water pack or bladder as it’s also known. This is a bigger container, specifically designed to go inside your backpack or rucksack. In fact, some rucksacks are purposely equipped to accommodate just such a water reservoir with an internal sleeve inside the bag and a hole through which you can thread a drinking tube. That way, the tube will give you constant access to drinking water without the need to find a bottle and fiddle about unscrewing tops and stoppers.
If it’s important to you that you are carrying a drink that stays either hot or cold until you need it, then a more sophisticated type of container will be needed – typically some kind of thermos flask.
As any prepper will tell you, preparation for an indefinitely longer haul is also important. If you’re going to be on the move or unsettled for longer than, say, three days, you’re certainly not going to be able to carry all the water you’ll need.
Instead, you’ll need some way of filtering any water you can find along the way so that it becomes clean enough to drink. For that purpose, you can buy a special water bottle with a filtration system built into the container itself – fill up from whatever water source you can find, and the water is filtered whenever you lift it to your lips to drink.
Bottles, flasks, and hydration systems
Let’s take a look at just a few of the examples of containers for the water you’ll need to stay hydrated:
CamelBak eddy+
- the CamelBak eddy+ 1L Water Filter Bottle incorporates the latest, clever water filtration device by Lifestraw;
- built into the 1-litre Copolyester bottle is Lifestraw’s two-stage filtration process – a hollow fibre filter that removes microplastics, parasites, and bacteria plus a second-stage ion exchange filter to remove chlorine, lead, and other chemicals whilst also reducing odours and unpleasant tastes;
GRAYL Unisex
- from GRAYL Unisex comes the Geopress Purifier Water Filter Bottle for adults – with a capacity of 710ml and finished in oasis green;
- this is another in-bottle filtration system which Grayl claims to remove viruses, protozoa, and bacteria, along with particulates (of sediment and microplastics, for example), dangerous heavy metals, and many other chemicals;
LifeStraw Personal Water Filter
- the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter might not pack the same volume as the two previous examples, but it is certainly lightweight (less than 2 ounces), space-saving, and also has its own inbuilt filtration process;
- the microfilter membrane built into the bottle is especially long-lasting and durable, capable of safely filtering up to 1,000 gallons (4,000 litres) of water – or enough to last a single individual for more than 5 years.
Summary
Drinking water will prove far more than a luxury when you’re facing any crisis or emergency – it will be an absolute necessity. Make sure you are carrying your immediate needs for hydration – preferably in a bottle or bottles that can be filled wherever you happen to be thanks to their inbuilt filtration systems.
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