Tag: Health

Water treatment methods

Outbreaks of waterborne illnesses are one of the biggest risks after a calamity. It's vital that survivors have access to clean water for drinking and washing. As a general guideline, America's ready.gov website recommends households store at least 4 liters (1 gallon) of water per person, per day and and have a minimum of three days supply per person. These figures are likely to be too low for a country like the Philippines with its tropical climate and scattered islands. No matter how much you store, supplies may eventually run low before infrastructure is restored or relief arrives so it's important to know how to treat water before drinking. Here's a summary of a few simple methods that use equipment or ingredients accessible to most Philippine households.

Boiling

Many of us, especially those who have spent time the provinces, may remember our parents and grandparents boiling water for drinking. It's still the safest method of treating water but it does consume fuel. To boil water for drinking:
  1. Put some water in a pot or kettle. Make sure the water has been filtered of debris, sediment and has not been contaminated by chemicals.
  2. Boil the water until it's bubbling vigorously for one full minute.
  3. After boiling, let it cool before drinking.

Chlorination with household bleach

  1. Add approx. 2-4 drops of bleach per liter of water (approx. 16 drops per gallon).
  2. Stir and leave it for 30 minutes.
  3. The water should have a slight bleach smell after 30 minutes.
  4. If you don't smell any bleach, treat the water again and wait an additional 15 minutes.
  5. Do not use the water if it still doesn't smell of bleach after the second treatment.
Make sure you use a new bottle of plain household chlorine bleach (5.25 to 6.0 percent sodium hypochlorite) with no additives. Opened and older bleach bottles may have lost its potency over time. More information: FEMA and American Red Cross guide: Food and Water in an Emergency (PDF download).

Solar water disinfection (SODIS)

Solar water disinfection, or SODIS is a new method that's starting to gain acceptance in tropical countries. It's simple, free and uses low-tech, easy-to-find materials. The World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and the Red Cross recommend the SODIS method for treating drinking water in developing countries.
Pictogram showing the SODIS method
Pictogram showing the SODIS method by Samuel Luzi, Fundacion SODIS
See related article: A cheap and effective way to disinfect water in tropical countries.

Other water treatment methods

There are many other methods you can use to create potable water for your family. However, they need more research, practice or require equipment or supplies that aren't so readily available.

Chemical contamination

Most of these methods work by killing disease-causing micro-organisms in the water. Unless you distill the water or use an appropriate filter, any chemical contaminants will remain in the water. It's therefore important to stay way from water that may have been fouled by dangerous chemicals. Continue Reading

A Prepper’s Beans, Bandages & Bullets

Article by Pinoy Prepper, Emergency Research Center "Lamang ang Handa sa Hindi!" Prepper Definition:
Prepper (noun): An individual or group that prepares or makes preparations in advance of, or prior to, any change in normal circumstances or lifestyle without significant reliance on other persons (i.e., being self-reliant), or without substantial assistance from outside resources (govt., etc.) in order to minimize the effects of that change on their current lifestyle
Source: Prepper.org Rule of Threes
  • 3 minutes without air
  • 3 days without water
  • 3 weeks without food and you will die
These are your survival priorities. Remember them well. Do not eat food unless you have adequate water. In an emergency – you will generally have three options:
  • Lockdown
  • Shelter-In-Place
  • Evacuate
In any of the three cases above, you will need basic supplies:

BEANS – Food and Water

"We are 9 meals away from chaos" – Preppers predict that peace and order will be at risk after the population misses 9 meals. That’s only three days worth of meals. While it’s true that you may live several weeks without food provided you have water, that’s on the assumption that your are just lying down or sitting still. During a survival situation you may have a lot of tasks to perform. Walking from one place to another is one of them. Walking burns calories and you will need an appropriate amount of food to replenish your energy source. You may well be constantly avoiding hordes of hungry people. Remember the pack of kids begging for money at street intersections? Imagine this multiplied by the thousands. People begging for food and stealing what’s available. Plan your food stocks well. Consider nutrition, weight, portability and palatability. Your food stocks must be nutritious. This means most junk foods are out. Since you may end up carrying your food stocks, weight is a premium. This will take most canned goods out of the equation. Remember, you cannot eat if you do not have an adequate supply of water. Water is heavy as 1 liter weighs approximately 1 kilogram (weight to volume is dependent on temperature, water quality, etc). For this reason, have alternate means to purify your water. You can buy water filters or make simple ones that will filter out the coarser suspended particles. You can find details elsewhere in this book. In a pinch, you may have to resort to SODIS. Solar Disinfection is a UN approved method which involves any clear bottle, filling it with questionable water (filter the water first if its cloudy) and exposing it to the sun for a whole day. SODIS works by exposing the microorganisms in the water to ultra violet light in our sun’s rays killing them in the process. Use clear glass bottles for SODIS, only use clear plastic bottles if glass is not available. WARNING: SODIS will not keep toxins out of the water - use filters for this purpose.<.em> Store enough water for drinking. Avoid using the water for bathing! People can live without bathing.

BANDAGES – Medical Skills, Equipment and Supplies.

Its not enough to have a deluxe Medical kit with the latest bells and whistles. A Prepper should have enough first aid knowledge to handle medical, dental and mental emergencies. Emergency Childbirth is one of the must have skills in the Prepper’s medical tool kit. If you have to read the manual during an actual emergency, its too late! Learn life saving skills such as managing shock, controlling severe bleeding and performing CPR. Along the way, learn and practice basic first aid skills such as bandaging, splinting, and wound care. The time to learn is now, before it’s too late. To control severe bleeding, apply direct pressure to the wound until the bleeding visibly stops. One of the best improvised dressings one can use is a feminine napkin. This direct descendant of the battle dressing absorbs blood effectively and can thus perform an admirable job of controlling bleeding when coupled with direct pressure. To manage shock – watch the face. If the face is pale or bluish, raise the feet. This will make the blood from the extremities flow to the vital organs such as the brain, heart and lungs. Keep the victim warm by covering him/her with a blanket, jacket or other material. In as much as your pets will need to have their own supplies of food and water, don’t forget to learn first aid for your pets. You can even learn how to do CPR for man’s best friend - your dog!

BULLETS – Skills and equipment to defend oneself.

It’s not enough to have a gun and ammunition. One must be proficient in its safe and effective use. The same applies to knives, spears, sticks, bottles, stones, bows & arrows. Learn basic self defense moves. It is better to master one technique than be spotty with a thousand. Learn and practice your skills with different people. In self defense, familiarity breeds contempt. Remember: Trained fighters are predictable; but the world is full of dangerous amateurs!

BUGGING OUT – (Evacuating)

EDC (Every Day Carry) These are the items you carry on your person on an everyday basis. EDC’s are predicated on the premise that an emergency may strike at any moment, any time, any day. My EDC is my wallet, I have adhesive strips “band aids”, a large safety pin that I use for repairs, first aid, lock picking, and a host of other McGyver stuff. There’s also a survival multi-tool with a dozen uses and of course, cash. Bring a flashlight – the small LED button lights are marvelous. Bring a lighter – nothing beats a lighter for starting fires. An emergency situation is not the place to start learning how to light a fire. Rubbing sticks together or striking stones to make fire takes some time to learn. Study now. Learn how to start a fire with a battery (your cellphone has one – but only use it if a fire has priority over communications) and a staple wire. BOB (Bug Out Bag) My bug out bag is my 33 liter capacity laptop bag which contains my pocket survival kit, ten mile cloth bandanna, monocular, hoody wind/rain jacket, trauma medical kit and a host of other goodies. This bag goes with me to corporate meetings (my netbook, flash drives and peripherals are in it) as well as three day jaunts to the province, training courses, jungle treks and the rest of my Prepper activities. BOV (Bug Out Vehicle) Depending on where you live and your situation, your bug out vehicle may be a 4X4 monster truck, a family sedan, a dual purpose motorcycle, a mountain bike or a cariton! Consider the fact that in a bug out situation the usual routes will be clogged with fellow evacuees. Recall images of Hurricane Katrina in Florida and Louisiana – highways filled with so many cars they looked like giant parking lots. Figure out your PACE – Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency routes. Have at least two and at best four routes out of your area. Consider waterways for your bug out. If you have the means, consider air travel as well. Otherwise, be prepared to hunker down and Shelter-In-Place in your home, office or school.

Pinoy Prepper’s Observations:

Its not the rich Prepper with the latest bells and whistles who will make it through a long term disaster. It’s the street dwellers who live on survival mode on a daily basis. It’s the person with the kariton poking through the garbage and cooking with the tin can you threw out months ago. It’s the street folk who are used to this environment. They know where the best pickings are, where to find water, how to prepare what food they forage. They live without most of the things we “civilized folks” take for granted. No bed, no bathroom, no water, no closet full of clothes, no laptop, no aircon, heck, no electricity! The point being raised here is the fact that we have to train and condition ourselves to survival conditions. Anybody who is comfort oriented will have a hard time surviving the big one. If you can’t sleep without air conditioning, can’t go to the corner convenience store without your car or can’t walk a city block, think again. You have to toughen yourself up for an emergency. Think about this… Scientists at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana analyzed the lifestyles of more than 17,000 men and women over about 13 years, and found that people who sit for most of the day are 54 percent more likely to die of heart attacks. Exercise! More than half of us chair sitters are going to die of a heart attack let alone a major emergency. If push comes to shove, can you walk 10 kilometers (that’s not far – runners run that distance)? Drink water from a nearby stream? Sleep under the stars? Can you live without your aircon? Cellphone? Car? Comfort food? Starbucks? Facebook? - if you can’t, have another think. Establish your priorities. Have you made peace with your maker? Do you have faith in your abilities? Are you trained? Do you have the skills needed to survive? This is what Prepping and being a Prepper is all about. Continue Reading

A cheap and effective way to disinfect water in tropical countries

There are many ways to make water safe for drinking. One method that's starting to gain acceptance in tropical countries is solar water disinfection, or SODIS, because it is simple, practically free and uses low-tech, easy-to-find materials. The World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and the Red Cross recommend the SODIS method for treating drinking water in developing countries.
Pictogram showing the SODIS method
Pictogram showing the SODIS method by Samuel Luzi, Fundacion SODIS

How to apply the SODIS method to make safe drinking water

The process uses sunlight to disinfect water stored in common PET bottles which are used for soft-drinks. It works because sunlight contains radiation that kills pathogens including bacteria, viruses and parasites that cause diarrhea.
  1. Collect some colorless, transparent PET soft-drink bottles that will contain no more than 2 liters of liquid. Choose bottles that have few surface scratches and blemishes. Remove any labels and wash well with clean water. Sunlight may not penetrate the water adequately if the bottles are too large or heavily scratched.
  2. Fill the bottle three-quarters full with the water to be disinfected, screw on the cap and shake well for 20 seconds. After shaking, fill the bottle with more water but leave a space at the top for air, then screw on the lid once again. This step oxygenates the water which helps speed up the disinfection process.
  3. Expose the bottle to sunlight. A good place is on a sloped surface facing the sun, like a corrugated iron sheet roof. The length of exposure depends on your weather conditions.
  4. Once treated, the water should be stored in and consumed directly from the bottles to avoid re-contaminating the water.
Suggested exposure times
Weather conditions Minimum exposure duration
Sunny (less than 50% cloud cover) 6 hours
Cloudy (50-100% cloudy, with little or no rain) 2 days
Continuous rainfall The SODIS method cannot be reliably used to disinfect water

Important considerations

  • The SODIS method kills pathogens in the water but does not remove toxic chemicals.
  • Turbid (cloudy) water must first be filtered to remove the particles before being used to fill bottles.
  • Old bottles that are scratched or discolored should be replaced.
  • PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles should be used. The easiest way to find out if a bottle is made out of PET is to look for the recycling mark shown below. 1 is the resin identification code for PETE or PET.
    PET resin identification code: 1
    PET resin identification code stamp

Resources

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After a disaster, beware of diarrhea

The aftermath of a disaster can often kill more people than the disaster itself and one of the main risks is disease. Poor sanitation caused by the disruption often leads to outbreaks of acute diarrhea. We saw this during Typhoon Ondoy where diarrhea was one of the top killers in evacuation centers. It was also a huge problem in post-earthquake Haiti when a cholera epidemic infected 1,500 people in just a few days. Even during normal times, diarrhea is the 3rd leading cause of child illness and the 4th leading cause of deaths among children less than 5 years in the Philippines. Diarrhea kills through rapid dehydration and children are especially susceptible as they can succumb in a matter of hours. Nevertheless, deaths can be prevented by simply making sure that the patient drinks a lot of clean water with oral rehydration salts. Unfortunately, these are difficult to find after a disaster. Aid workers in Haiti were distressed to find that many were dying for want of something that costs so little.

Simple ways to safeguard your family

There's no reason why your family should suffer from an outbreak of diarrhea.
  • Stock up on Oral Rehydration Salts. These are available from Watsons and Mercury Drug for around Php10 to Php15 per sachet.
  • Stock up on antidiarrheal medications like Diatabs (Loperamide) which are less than Php30 for four capsules.
  • Make sure you have access to clean water for drinking and washing.
  • Eat cooked food or food washed well in clean water.
  • As much as possible, continue with your usual sanitation habits.
Oral Rehydration Salts and Diatabs
Oral Rehydration Salts and Diatabs

Household alternatives

If you don't have any commercially produced ORS at home, rehydrate.org suggests the following alternatives:
  • Breastmilk
  • Gruels (diluted mixtures of cooked cereals and water)
  • Carrot Soup
  • Rice water (congee)
  • Fresh fruit juice
  • Weak tea
  • Green coconut water (buko juice)
  • A home-made solution of salt, sugar and if possible, orange juice or mashed banana (see link for recipe and instructions)
Remember: make sure you first check with your pediatrician if these alternatives are suitable for your child.

Additional resources

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