by Les Stroud
Collect Dew: Heavy dew has been known to provide water for wilderness survivors, and there are various ways to procure it.
If you find yourself in an area of long grass, heavy with morning dew, you can make like native Australians and tie rags or tufts of fine grass around your ankles while walking through the dew-covered grass. As the rags or grass tufts absorb the dew, wring the water into a container. Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of this procedure! It is surprising how much you can get. If there’s no long grass in the area, the only source of dew you’ll have is on leaves, which you can lick. Here you’ll run a significant risk, however: some leaves contain oils or toxins that might aggravate your system or cause diarrhea, resulting in you feeling worse than when you started.
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STROUD’S TIP
My friend and survival companion Allan “Bow” Beauchamp has a couple of unique water-collection methods that are very effective: Moss cups can collect large amounts of rainwater. Here’s what to do. Cut a large square sheet of green moss and lay this on the ground moss-side up, or, best-case scenario, right on a flat rock. Then, using rocks and dirt, bank up the sides of the moss sheet until you have what looks like a square moss “cup.” Using one large piece is the best and will retain the most water. You can also collect punky wood and leave it out on the ground for the night. When you wake up in the morning you’ll find that dew will have settled in these dry pieces of wood. Simply pick them up and wring them out.
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Make a Vegetation Still: Vegetation stills can be used in many parts of the world and require only a few simple components, though collecting the water does demand patience. It can take as long as 24 hours to obtain up to 1 quart (1 L) of water, and that’s under ideal conditions.
You will need some green, leafy vegetation—gathered from trees, bushes, shrubs, or grasses—along with a clear plastic bag and a small rock. Choose a sunny location with a slope on which to place the still, and follow these steps:
1. Fill the bag with air by turning the open end into the breeze or by “scooping” air into it.
2. Remove from your gathered vegetation any sticks or spines that might puncture the bag. Fill the bag half to three-quarters full of the vegetation (or tie the bag onto the end of a branch). Do not use poisonous plants; they will produce poisonous liquid.
3. Place a small rock in the bag to weigh it down.
4. If you have a piece of tubing, a small straw, or a hollow reed, insert one end into the mouth of the bag before closing (remember to tie o? or plug the tubing so that air will not escape). This will allow you to drink the condensed water without untying the bag. Then tie the bag securely shut as close to the end as possible; it’s important to maximize the amount of air space in the bag.
5. Place the bag on a slope in full sunlight. The mouth of the bag should be positioned higher than the base of the bag (which contains the rock), to keep the bag from slipping or blowing away and to keep the water dripping to the lowest point.
6. To drink: If you don’t have a tube to draw the condensed water from the still, loosen the tie around the bag’s mouth and drain. Retie the mouth securely and reposition the still to allow further condensation.
7. Change the vegetation in the bag after extracting most of the water from it, to ensure a regular supply of water.
If you can’t fill a bag with vegetation, tying it to the end of a branch with lots of leaves will do the trick. Just make sure it’s in a sunny spot. If this tree had been poisonous, the water it produced could also have been poisonous. Don’t take chances unless you’re sure of the source tree or bush.
Make a Solar Still: I’m always leery of survival skills that require the effort of digging a hole. Nevertheless, the solar still can be an effective method of collecting water, particularly in a very dry location such as a desert. To make a solar still, however, you need four components: a sunny spot, a receptacle in which to catch the water, a clear plastic sheet approximately 6 square feet (.5 m2), and some type of weight to place on top of the plastic. You’ll also need to dig a hole, so a shovel or trowel would be useful.
You can build a solar still without digging a hole if you are lucky enough to have a large container like a barrel. When surviving on a small tropical island off the coast of Belize, I had at my disposal one half of the large plastic container that my life raft had come in. Using this container saved me a great deal of digging.
Solar stills can take a couple of hours (or more) to make, and their yield is not very high. How much you get depends largely on the ambient temperature, the types of vegetation you include, and access to direct sun. A still such as this may produce water for two to four days depending on the moisture content of the soil or sand itself, and must be moved every so often. The added bonus, however, is that the outside of it also serves as a great dew or rain-catch. You’ll likely need at least three solar stills to meet your daily water-consumption needs.
Here are the steps for building a solar still:
1. Select a sunny site where you believe the soil contains the most moisture. The lower and damper the spot, the better.
2. Dig a bowl-shaped hole about 3 feet (1 m) around and 2 feet (.5 m) deep.
3. If possible, fill the hole with non-poisonous vegetation. Pour salt water, water contaminated with bacteria or urine into and onto the sides of the hole.
4. Place your collecting receptacle (the wider the better) at the bottom of the hole, preferably in its own small hole. Do not let any impure water, salt water or urine get in the receptacle (cup).
5. If you are lucky enough to have a drinking tube (or can fashion one out of available materials), settle it into the receptacle and stretch it out so that it terminates above ground. The tube allows you to step up to the still and drink from it without disturbing it.
6. Cover the hole with the plastic sheet; the sheet should be anchored around its perimeter with rocks or other heavy objects. Place a small rock or other weighted object in the center of the plastic sheet, ensuring that the lowest point of the sheet is now directly above the receptacle.
The idea behind a solar still is that solar energy heats the air, soil, and vegetation (if available) in the hole by passing through the plastic sheet. Moisture from the soil—all soil has moisture—evaporates and condenses on the low point in the plastic. Added vegetation (non-poisonous!), such as leaves, grasses, or seaweed, can help speed up the process, and since solar stills also purify water, the condensed water that collects on the underside of the sheet will be fit to drink.
Creating a Solar Still
1. A last-ditch water-making method, the solar still can produce and purify enough water to keep you going for a while. Place a receptacle in the middle of a vegetation-lined hole.
2. Put a plastic sheet on top of the hole, with a stone over the receptacle. The receptacle under the plastic catches and collects the droplets that con dense from the vegetation.
Water from Plants
The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert live where heat extremes are a part of life. In adapting to this harsh climate, they have mastered the art of extracting water from plants. They are able to travel long distances, seeking out roots along the way, which they cut into chunks and mash. The water they squeeze out and drink helps to replenish them.
The Bushmen know that where there is vegetation, they can find water. But in most cases, the process is painfully slow and produces only enough liquid to wet the mouth. What’s more, for you or me to be able to locate and correctly identify a water-bearing root or plant requires instruction from a local expert. Even then, the chances of finding one of these plants are slim, making it not worth the effort for most people.
Despite my hesitation about relying on plant innards to provide water, there are a few notable exceptions to the rule. Green bamboo is an excellent source of clear, odorless water. Simply bend the green bamboo stalk, tie it down, and cut off the top. Water will drip from the stalk during the night into a waiting receptacle.
Reaching into a rotted birch tree, pulling out the wet, spongy and punky wood and squeezing it in your hands can also produce water. Banana or plantain trees provide water too, if you have a tool to cut one down. Chop down the tree, leaving a stump about 12 inches (30 cm) high. Make a bowl-shaped depression by scooping out the center of the stump; water from the roots will immediately start to fill the hollow. The first few fillings will be bitter, but the rest should be palatable. The stump will supply water for a few days.
Vines can be a good source of water if you can properly identify them. (Poison ivy and moonseed are both poisonous vines, and they’re found not just in tropical jungles but elsewhere.) The most water I’ve ever found in a plant came from a water vine I discovered when I was surviving for a week in the swamps of Georgia.
To extract water from a vine, cut a notch as high as you can reach. Make sure this is the first cut; if you cut the bottom first, the water will recede with capillary action. Next, cut the vine off close to the ground. Catch the liquid dropping from the cut vine in a container or in your mouth. When in the Georgian swamps I simply cut one end of the vine, let it drip for hours into a can, and ended up with fresh clear water (and a few swimming ants).
Some plants, such as the pitcher plant in northern Ontario, act as natural receptacles, catching water in their cup-shaped cavities. But again, you must have had on-site instruction in plant identification to be sure you are collecting water from non-poisonous plants.
The milk from unripe (green) coconuts will also provide your body with much-needed liquid, though it’s not water. While you may survive for some time on milk from mature coconuts, note that these contain an oil that acts as a laxative. However, I’ve survived primarily on coconut water mixed with rainwater for a week in two separate tropical locations without any ill effects.
The following trees (most of which are found in tropical locations) can also provide water:
Palms, such as buri, coconut, sugar, rattan, and nips, contain a sugary, drinkable liquid. If you bruise a lower frond and pull it down, the tree will excrete liquid at the site of the injury. Cut another slice every 12 hours to renew the flow.
The Baobab tree, which is found in the sandy plains of northern Australia and Africa, collects water during the wet season in its bottle-like trunk. Water can occasionally be found in these trees even after weeks of dry weather.
Some of the trees in the banana family can hold up to 2 quarts (2 L) of water at the base of the chevron of their leaf stalks (where the leaves attach to the trunk).
Water from a Well
Remember when you were a kid at the beach and you dug a hole so deep that water eventually started seeping through the walls of your creation? Well, you can use this method to procure fresh water in a survival situation. (If you’re going to the effort of digging a hole, however, and have the necessary hardware on hand, you’d be better off making a solar still.)
I have dug for water in many places, often to no avail, but was successful when surviving in the plains and forested regions of northern South Africa. There, I found a mud-hole contaminated by wild boar feces and urine. I moved a short distance downstream of the mud-hole and dug a small hole in the soft sand. Within a short time I had a hole full of water—muddy, but free of animal feces and bacterial pollutants.
You will need to dig a hole deep enough to allow the water to seep in. How quickly it enters the hole will depend on how deep you dig and the concentration of water in the soil. Once seepage begins, use a rag to absorb the fluid, then wring it into your mouth or into a container. You may find water
wherever green vegetation is found
wherever damp surface sand is found
in valleys and other low-lying areas
at the foot of the concave banks of dry riverbeds
at the foot of cliffs or rocky outcroppings
in the first depression behind the first sand dune of dry desert lakes
Dig in a dry riverbed like this one and you may find water.
What a difference a storm makes! This riverbed was bone dry but suddenly started flowing as a result of faraway rains.
Water from Rocks
No, this is not a misprint! Believe it or not, rocks can be good (though inconsistent) sources of water, even in extraordinarily dry regions such as the desert. Depressions, holes, or fissures in rocks may collect water during rainfall. Any kind of flexible tubing can be used to suck the water from these difficult-to-reach spaces. Some types of porous rock may even act like sponges, soaking up water during a rainfall. You can get the water by inserting flexible tubing into a crack or hole in the rock. But bear in mind that every rodent in the area will also drink from—and likely urinate or defecate in or near—this same water. So if you can collect the water and boil it, you’re better off. Wiping the dew off rocks in the morning with grass or cloth is another method of obtaining water from rocks.
Water from Animals
Fish usually contain a drinkable fluid, although you have to be careful. Large fish in particular will have a reservoir of water along the spine. You don’t want to drink the juice from the flesh, however, as it is very rich in protein, and digesting it actually depletes (rather than replenishes) your body’s water stores.
Gross though it may seem, animal eyeballs contain water. Extract it by cutting a small slice in the eyeball and sucking it.
Water from Urine
Few survival issues cause as much controversy as this one.
Some people are huge proponents of drinking urine—even in non-survival situations! Urine therapy has been used in various cultures for millennia. This therapy involves drinking urine or massaging it into one’s skin for medicinal or cosmetic purposes. During the Renaissance, some people even used urine to clean their teeth.
My feelings on drinking urine? Don’t do it! The primary dangers come from its salt and toxin content (the same dangers apply to drinking salty ocean water). The salt content (about 2 percent) tends to cause further dehydration, so it’s a case of one step forward and two steps back. Urine also contains metabolic waste by-products, such as formal-dehyde, ammonia, and dissolved heavy metals. The less diluted it is, the greater the concentration of the by-products you’ll be ingesting. There are numerous documented cases of people dying from drinking their own urine.
If any case, if you’re already dehydrated, you’ll produce little urine. When I was surviving in the Kalahari Desert, the one time I did pee during the week, I produced very little and it was a disgusting yellow-brown color. A safer option than drinking your urine is using a solar still, as described previously, to distill your urine.
Purifying and Filtering Water
THERE IS ONE HARD AND FAST RULE regarding water purification and filtration: If you have the ability and energy to do it, do it.
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STROUD’S TIP
Here is a neat trick developed by survival expert Allan “Bow” Beauchamp, assuming you’re lucky enough to have two large plastic bottles (like a Pepsi bottle) or similar containers on hand:
“Fill one bottle one-quarter full with urine. Tape the mouth of this container to the mouth of the second container. Now lay them horizontal in the sun. Cover the clean container with some sand or soil and leave the contaminated container exposed to the sun. The contaminated container will heat up, causing evaporation. Moisture will migrate into the previously empty, clean container, leaving the residual waste behind.”
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As I mention above, rainwater collected in clean containers or from non-poisonous plants is safe for drinking. You should, however, purify water from all other sources. The quickest and easiest way to do so is with water purification tablets, iodine, or chlorine. If using iodine, which has been shown in medical experiments to be more effective than chlorine, mix no more than five drops per quart (liter) of water. Shake well and let the water stand for 30 minutes before drinking. Two drops of chlorine bleach is sufficient for a quart of water.
Note that these qu
antities are for relatively clean water. If you’re using water that you suspect is contaminated, double the amounts suggested here. You should also increase the amount of time that the water sits before drinking, to give the agents time to kill any microorganisms.
Since it’s unlikely that you’ll have any of these items on hand, you’ll probably have to revert to the old standby: boiling. You should boil water for five minutes to ensure you kill all possible harmful pathogens. Some people say you can get away with as little as one minute of boiling at sea level, adding one minute for each additional 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level. Note that boiling will not neutralize chemical pollutants.
In both Africa and Alaska, I was able to bring water to a boil in plastic and glass bottles. The method is simple and is best accomplished if you have a rope and some long branches. Follow these steps:
Your plastic bottle will become black and misshapen but should not melt through, if you are careful.
1. Make a tripod by propping three similar-sized sticks together.
2. Tie the rope to the top of the bottle using a clove hitch.
3. Suspend the water-filled bottle above a fire so that the flames lick the bottle without completely engulfing it or going above the waterline. Boiling water over hot coals minimizes the risk that your bottle will melt, although this can still happen if the bottle gets too close to the coals. Heat until the water boils; you do not want to overheat the bottle so that it breaks or melts.