It could happen to you… you might have to drink water from a source you don’t trust like the pond down the road or a barrel of rainwater. You might be forced to drink water from a lake or creek near your home. Is it safe? I don’t know, but I would rather be safe and have a way to filter it.
The water filter we are talking about here is one you can build if you never got around to ordering that commercial water filter designed for emergencies.
So now maybe you are in a little emergency and need a way to filter your water to make it safe to drink. Maybe you have a well but there is a question as to the safety of the water coming out of it. Until it can be tested you have to go to an alternative source of water. It is nice to know how to make a filter if needed.
Don’t forget you can make water drinkable by bringing it to a boil; the water does not need to actually boil but once you have a boil you are safe to drink it. It can also be made safe to drink with chlorine bleach, no additives, about 8 drops per gallon, then let the water stand for 30 minutes it is safe to drink.
You can make a filter on any scale you want – in one 5 gallon bucket or three like the directions in the article suggest. The difference is how well it will filter. The more media the water passes through the better job it does filtering. Also the more media you have, the longer the filter will remain effective.
So three 5 gallon buckets are large enough to do a good job filtering your water and they will last some time as well. Here are the plans to build one out of simple materials and five gallon buckets: