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Water Treatment--Why treat water?
Don't come home with 'beaver fever' or suffer 'Montezuma's revenge.' Everyone
needs to be concerned about safe drinking water when traveling in the
backcountry or foreign countries. Portable
treatment can purify most water contamination situations.
Good drinking water is clear,
colorless, odorless, and has a pleasant taste. It must be free of pathogens
indicating the presence of contamination. Drinking water is not pure water. It
should contain minerals and salts vital to our organisms
The
most common health risk on trips is the infection by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and protozoans
contained in drinking water. The primary source of contamination is human or animal excrements that have entered
the water
along different paths.
You never
know what's in the water. It makes sense to always protect yourself with a
quality water system. A pristine stream may be safe one day and contaminated
the next. It all depends upon what's happening upstream. Microorganisms
generally come from human and animal waste and are spread by rain and run-off. The
EPA reports that 90% of the world's fresh water supply is contaminated.
"We highly recommend treating water from every source in the
backcountry. You don't know what's upstream - not just people but animals - and
you can get infected."
Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
U.S. Government
We feature Katadyn water treatment products. Katadyn provides you with a water system for every need – including
traveling, camping, backpacking, sailing, paddling, fishing, biking, etc
About Katadyn
Katadyn of Switzerland has been producing high quality portable water systems
since 1928. Their history has been one of innovation and durability. Katadyn
products are used by militaries, health organizations and outdoor adventurers
world-wide. No other water system provides higher quality or longer lasting
performance. Katadyn is the global leader in portable water treatment. With
subsidiaries in the United States, Germany, France, and Singapore; Katadyn
develops, produces and distributes high quality products which are used
whenever safe drinking water isn't available--for travel, camping and
humanitarian operations.
SUSPENDED
SOLIDS AND TURBIDITY
Suspended
solids are components in water that provide micro-organisms with nourishment and promote their
growth. Though normally harmless, they may prevent
effective water sanitizing. Turbid water must be filtered before treatment.
Water filters remove parasites and
bacteria, plus larger viruses. They remove most of the particles that cause
turbidity. Many filters do not remove chemical contamination and those that do
only remove a limited range of chemical contaminants. Water filters are a
convenient and fast field water treatment system. We feature Katadyn's
unique products to provide safety and convenience for outdoor adventurers.
MICROFILTRATION
Bacteria
and protozoans are the most common micro-organisms found in drinking water. To remove the
most common bacteria from water, a microfilter
with a pore size no larger than 0.3 microns is
required. Possible filtration media include ceramics, glass fibers and plastics.
Protozoans
such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium are much larger (1 to 15 microns) and can be
retained by microfilters with pore sizes up to 1 micron.
Microfilters
are capable of mechanically retaining bacteria and protozoans, whereas chemical
processes destroy the germs but do not remove them from the water.
In
mechanical filtration using a microfilter, the water always passes directly through the filter. The
particles are retained by the filter surface. The
advantage of ceramic
filters is that they can be cleaned and
re-used several times. The flexibility of glass fibers allows the entire filter
structure to be folded, creating an extremely large surface area in a small space. Glass fiber filters therefore have a very high
contaminant absorption capacity.
Safety
first: Clean drinking water can be produced from any stream or fountain
using a water filter bottle.
ACTIVATED
CARBON (ABSORPTION)
Organic
and inorganic substances that enter water, air and soil are increasingly
polluting our environment. Natural water sources always contain safe organic and inorganic
substances. Humic acid, for example, is a soil
component that produces a brownish water color
when washed out of the soil. Harmful substances such as herbicides and pesticides typically
occur in water only in very small quantities. They are only removed when the
safety limits are exceeded in order to prevent health problems.
All of
these water pollutants can be removed by filtration using activated carbon. In this process, the
substances to be removed come into contact with
the activated carbon, whose surfaces absorb them.
Activated carbon is available in the form of loose pellets or compressed blocks. Carbon
blocks have a much denser structure than carbon pellets and therefore offer a
longer contact path for adsorbing chemical contaminants. The surface of the
activated carbon will reach its saturation limit more or less quickly as a
function of the contaminant loading of the water.
Distilled water is recognized as the water treatment
process that removes the widest range of drinking water contaminants. However, it
is impractical to carry a distiller while traveling. The definition of
“Portable” is a counter top model that will weigh around 25 pounds. Home made
distillers may be better than nothing for survival, but they are very low
production and subject to contamination in the process.
If you travel internationally, participate with relief groups, or want to prepare for emergencies, you must have a reliable source of pure water. Katadyn's water filters give you safety, convenience and long lasting performance.
Travel
tip: Even in good hotels in tropical and subtropical countries, one should never drink the
tap water.
Travel
tip: Always filter and/or sanitize water you take from rivers, streams, lakes,
springs, wells and cisterns.
