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Posted by Chumango on October 22, 2007 at 7:00:55 pm EDT
In reply to Water purification in extreme conditions posted by Bill S on October 19, 2007 at 11:58:04 am EDT

Reverse osmosis would require significant pre-filtering to work. The membranes would clog very quickly otherwise. This may not be apparent in the systems you have seen, but there are prefilters.

I am not aware of any pump type filters that would not require daily maintenance on your part or that would not require several spares just in case. The pleated type (Hiker) would go longer before maintenance is required, but the type of water you describe would fill them up rather quickly. You could rinse them out a couple of times, but then you'd have to replace. Ceramic type filters (Miniworks, Pocket Filter) would require a lot of maintenance, perhaps every liter or two for the really murky stuff. Prefiltering would help, but the prefilter would have to remove really small stuff to make a real difference. Settling/decanting might be your best bet unless you can come up with some sort of a still setup.

So I guess there are no real good alternatives that I can think of that will give you clear water. You're trying to treat the type of water we normally try to avoid for this very reason. Any way you slice it, if you want aesthetically pleasing water you're going to have to work for it. And there's no way around thoroughly treating water there if you don't want any intestinal visitors.

Personally, I would opt for settle/decant, and then filter with either a Hiker or a Pocket Filter (the latter being, in my experience, the least likely of any filter I have seen to cross contaminate when cleaned using proper technique).

One last thing to consider is that a filter with carbon will greatly improve the taste of the water. I would guess that you will be taking water from sources that could be rather foul.

I assume you are using some sort of a guide service. Do they have any large drip or gravity filters?

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