Sterilizing water in developing countries

[Cheechako]

It's hard to say if delivered 5 gallon water is good or not. In the 80's Baja water was mostly real good, but I knew 2 people who got a parasite in their livers from it after living there for a year+.

The UV system is nice. If I didn't have an RO system for converting salt to fresh, I would be tempted to get one of those undersink RO low pressure systems they sell for homes. They require nothing other than your pump pressure and provide clean water for $150+ investment. You may need decent system pressure though, mine at home seems to work fine on 40-65 psi.

I used to have a UV system, but it made the water very warm as we didn't have a storage tank after the UV. So drinking water was quite warm in the glass from the lamp.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

It's hard to say if delivered 5 gallon water is good or not. In the 80's Baja water was mostly real good, but I knew 2 people who got a parasite in their livers from it after living there for a year+.

No guarantee it's good, but if dealing with individual containers of water it'll be potentially easier to sanitize the water, etc. before adding it to the tank (if you don't have a good system for doing it from hose input).

[mvweebles]

I'm in Ensenada. There is so much development that the water system is stressed and that water is pretty salty as someone else said.

In my opinion, 5-gal jugs are the only option to a watermaker. They are running around $40 pesos each ($2 USD) plus whatever labor.

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Overall, Mexico has water that is safe for drinking, no different than the USA and Canada.

No, it isn't safe to drink. And no, it's not comparable to U.S.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Iron E

No, it isn't safe to drink. And no, it's not comparable to U.S.

I agree. The Mexican water system is not designed to deliver potable water to each house. The typical system is comprised of two parts: an underground cistern in the front yard where municipal water drips in; and a tank atop the house ("tinaco") that provides semi-pressurised water. This is an open system that is far from sanitary. Even the municipal water system, while treated, suffers frequent issues. If you've followed the recent issues in Kentucky, that's SOP in many parts of Mexico, especially places with rapid development such as the northern Baja

Unless in a hotel or condo with RO or other filtration, Mexicans do not drink the water. Garafons are used (the 20 liter jugs)

[Letterkenny]

This is the pitcher I use at the end which has carbon and UV and I also use the Larq UV water bottle usually and also picked up this for post treatment. Sounds like I’ll need to do a bit more on pretreatment then.

https://www.livelarq.com/shop/larq-pitcher-purevis
https://waatr.com/pages/hydrocap

[Letterkenny]

Would be curious if anyone has used this. Might be a good solution albeit expensive.

Clearsource Ultra RV Water Filter System with VirusGuard - Ultra Protection Against Viruses, Bacteria & Cysts https://a.co/d/2LMihXv

[mvweebles]

Not as compact, but a 5-stage water filtration system has a pump to pressurize a membrane. Under $200. Its bulky - close to the size of a watermaker. And its not applicable for saltware desalization.

https://www.amazon.com/APEC-5-Stage-...904010ad0&th=1

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Not as compact, but a 5-stage water filtration system has a pump to pressurize a membrane. Under $200. Its bulky - close to the size of a watermaker. And its not applicable for saltware desalization.

https://www.amazon.com/APEC-5-Stage-...904010ad0&th=1

I have this unit in my home. It's awesome and took about an hour from start to finish.
That said, I couldn't use this in my 35... way too big for my boat.

[BobFord]

Beware of waterborn infection , e.g. Gardia . Usually from raw sewage pollution( crowded anchorages and dodgy land sourced ) I have used the following with zero infection problems , when needed . 20ml bleach + (2) drips Iodine per 400 litres water. Watermaker or land source .

[JPA Cate]

Our water care is as wingless describes. It is simple, inexpensive, and worked well even when the water from the pipes was murky due to rainfall in the catchment areas.

We did get amoebas during our second time in the Sea of Cortez, most likely from street vendor fish tacos--which were mega-delicious-- and metronidazole (Flagyl) was the treatment, on passage. One can get infected from ice cubes, too, and I did have a gin and tonic ashore a couple of times.

Once camping with a young friend in Calif., the water was suspect, and I boiled it for 1/2 hr. Hard on the fuel surprise, but killed whatever had been alive in it, and waiting to make trouble. It is safest to assume that giardia is everywhere, and make sure your methods will eliminate it, too. Which the bleach will. We then used an inexpensive, easily obtained charcoal filter to remove the chlorine taste. We had a little water maker (for emergencies) that we used for a while, and in the Tuamotus and other places. I liked the no flavour water it made, too. It is very soft so you use less soap. But, if other people survive using it, so can you, with home treatment. It is possible to over-think the issue: there are so many wonderful things in the world, and so much pressure to buy....

Ann

[mvweebles]

Decent Penn State article on giardia, the most common form of water born illness. Filtering to 1 micron is effective, as is chlorine, UV sterilization, and ozone.

Gestation of the cyst is usually around 2 days so can be difficult to back-trace.
, https://extension.psu.edu/removing-g...drinking-water

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Decent Penn State article on giardia, the most common form of water born illness. Filtering to 1 micron is effective, as is chlorine, UV sterilization, and ozone.

Gestation of the cyst is usually around 2 days so can be difficult to back-trace.
, https://extension.psu.edu/removing-g...drinking-water

Actually, chlorination alone is NOT very effective against Giardia (linked article also does not indicate chlorine alone is effective). FYI, neither is iodine.

Bringing to a boil (even for 1 second) is always effective against Guardia (even at high altitude... not an issue on boats).

15 trips trekking in Nepal has taught me a lot (with much concomitant reading) about giardia and treatment of giardisis. We always carry Tinidazole for treatment... and have had to use it a few times.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Not as compact, but a 5-stage water filtration system has a pump to pressurize a membrane. Under $200. Its bulky - close to the size of a watermaker. And its not applicable for saltware desalization.

https://www.amazon.com/APEC-5-Stage-...904010ad0&th=1

Yes, these 'Undersink' units work very well for little investment as I said a few posts up. I paid $139 for mine on sale and use it for all drinking or cooking water. Removes virus, bacteria, parasites. Takes up little room.... about as much as a 6 gal water heater I suppose.

[Tetepare]

In SoPac and SE Asia (lots of sun) use clear bottles and leave in the sun. 8 hours kills everything. Must be clear, not hazy. Plastic 2 litre bottles work great. Done this for years in jungles, remote islands, etc.

It shouldn’t be necessary to say, but has become obvious that it must, this does NOT filter the water.