Drinking Rainwater with Tiny Bugs Swimming in It

[nimblemotors]

Water is known to cause cancer in humans.
Ask any cancer patient, they have consumed large amounts of water in their life.
Beer is the only safe beverage.

How-beer-gave-us-civilization

[mikeguyver]

Good point Mike. Use your common sense and experience in whatever you do.

[SaltyMonkey]

I would be very suspicious about drinking water from any source without proper tank sterilization and micron / carbon filtering, due to emerging contaminants from pollution and the like.

On land, never from any source such as a stream w/o a proper filter. Guardia Lamblia.

[klmmicro]

Guardia Lamblia: serious! This is what hospitalized my friend. He was not at all happy and now boils everything...

I learned that it is something I do not want.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

Beer is the only safe beverage.

Finally something we agree on.

[Andrew Troup]

It might be quite good if everyone in my part of the world had to drink untreated water from rivers, from an intake downstream of their land.

Rivers might be cleaner!

Apologies to de Bono, from whom I stole the idea.

[Delancey]

If it has something living in it, it's healthy! Chicks in New York pay top dollar for "live" foods.

[Blue Stocking]

For 400 years Bermudians have been catching rain water on our limestone shingled roofs, and drinking it without any filtration. There is not one known case of illness from this. Many people still put guppies in their tanks to eat the occasional mosquito. My under-house cistern stores 55,000 US gallons.

[Tx J]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

For 400 years Bermudians have been catching rain water on our limestone shingled roofs, and drinking it without any filtration. There is not one known case of illness from this. Many people still put guppies in their tanks to eat the occasional mosquito. My under-house cistern stores 55,000 US gallons.

Yikes. Is that cistern man-made or naturally formed, that's a pretty big volume?
We had a large in-ground swim pool, and if I remember from filling it up with metered water, it held about 48,000 gallons; and it was a lot of real estate to swim in. Given the geology where I'm at now, I dang sure wouldn't want something like that under the house.

As far as the topic of "bugs" in the water, even the little ones poop too; and have y'all ever looked closely at a cup of seawater?
Used to travel in Mexico a lot and had the usual scours until acclimated. Worst water I ever tasted was gallon jugs bought in Cancun/Progreso, had a hideous plasticey chemical taste, wasn't fit to drink.
Makes you wonder if it was better than what the locals had available from the tap (when running, in a lot of places a water tap only worked a few hours a day), and if they were drinking it, what their cancer rates are today.

[Blue Stocking]

Where you would build a concrete block basement, we build a water tank. We have no air pollution so our rain water is directly piped thru the house by a wellpump/pressure tank system. Our coral stone shingles, coated with white lime wash purifies the water. Google Bermuda roof and see our clinker-built construction.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

....
BTW, there is a real risk in drinking from any open water source, but this risk can be mitigated and managed with a little thought and understanding. I prefer to try and understand and assess the actual risk, as opposed to blindly following arbitrary all-encomapssing rules.

Not only a good philosophy in this instance but one that can be applied to most of life's decisions.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I spent many decades canoeing and kayaking around various Canadian wilderness areas. I would routinely drink from rivers, springs and lakes. I still drink water from Lake Superior (my main cruising grounds). I would have few concerns about drinking rain water.

BTW, there is a real risk in drinking from any open water source, but this risk can be mitigated and managed with a little thought and understanding. I prefer to try and understand and assess the actual risk, as opposed to blindly following arbitrary all-encomapssing rules.

Amen to that...I spent 7 years in Hawaii, 5 of it with catchment water. It's a no brainer. I had a nice filter > RO > UV filter > carbon filter. Delicious coffee in the morning. Most houses I worked on just had a 20 micron filter on the outlet of their pump and that was it. Hell...as kids, most of us drank from a garden hose.
I think that there is a lot of hysteria written about bad water. Personally I would rather trust what fell out of the sky vs. what comes out of a tap.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

................. I would rather trust what fell out of the sky vs. what comes out of a tap.

...........and both of these are better than what runs along the surface through the woods There's much good deep water aquifer artesian wells too. .....and of course it's not the water that may cause cancer, but chemicals in the water!

[Ambler]

I filter my water on board with a block carbon filter to help remove chemicals, lead traces from old town water supplies and pathogens. It filters to 1 micron. The filter is installed inline to a 2nd tap in the galley for drinking. The 1st tap is not filtered. I have a rainwater catchment system to fill my 500 litre tanks. I use micropur silver based water treatment added to keep the water sweet for longer periods.
When cycle touring outback Australia we search out rainwater tanks, pop a tea strainer under the tap to catch the wrigglers and drink it straight up. Never been crook yet and normally cycle many kilometres a day. I have felt sick after some town water supplies with all concoctions of chemicals added to make it potable. Like Anne said, I trust the water that sustains visible small life forms.

[Steve Bean]

Anyone who thinks they can see bacteria in water needs to talk to a microbiologist. Bacteria are MICROSCOPIC. I've been in the water business since 1984.