Home-Made Water Filter From what I learned in Africa

by Richard
(Stillwater, MN USA)

The water problem I experienced firsthand was from my time in the Peace Corps in Africa. My water source was an open well, with a loose fitting cover. I knew bats lived down there. They would fly out every evening.

I could not presume that the water was safe, and for the sake of safety I presumed it was not at all safe to drink. I never got sick off of this water once treated, but I got sick from drinking other water.

That's not very fun.

I set up a system of first filtering buckets of water through a ceramic filter, and then boiling for ten minutes. I would then decant this water into plastic bottles.

I started with mildly sedimented water and ended up with clear water. I started out with questionable water and used two methods of sterilization to end up with safe water.

If I were using well water now I would not filter and treat it the same way as I did in Africa. But I would do the same basic steps of particle filtration and sterilization.

I would add a carbon filter though, for removing contaminant metals and organics that seem to be all too common in the USA these days.

I would use a common brand filtering system that uses see-through canister filters, first a general particle filter, then a fine particle filter, and next next a carbon filter.

To this I would add a UV light sterilizer. I'm fairly brand agnostic about the first three, so it would only have to be a common brand with easy to replace and readily available cartridges.

I would NOT go the reverse osmosis route, because a carbon filter should do a great job of removing most contaminants for far less cost. Further, if you have hard water, the hardness is good for you.

Stick a water softener on your laundry and bathroom lines but drink the hard stuff. RO is great if you really need demineralized water, but most of us don't.

Brands of UV sterilizers include one from PURAUV, which has a variety of models and replacement bulbs. They make several units that connect to any other major filter cartridge system.

I appreciate that they have numerous models available based on use requirements. I also appreciate that their web site indicates that they understand UV as a sterilizing solution.