We cannot say for sure that we know the best method to remove the items mentioned by Rodney, but we do know that agencies all over the world (i.e. UNICEF, Medicines Sans Frontiers, US and Foreign Embassies, Crown Agents, the IDA Foundation, Save the Children Fund, League of Red Cross, Green Crescent, etc.) rely on portable water filter systems made by Doulton to clean up water in Third World Nations and in Westernized Nations after natural disasters.

In the past we wrote about the Doulton SS2 Gravity Fed Water Filter and praised its effectiveness at removing as many impurities as it does without the use of gravity. Today we want to call your attention to another version of that filter, the Doulton LP-5 High Density Polyethylene Gravity Filter System which uses up to five of Doulton’s advanced ceramic filters (Imperial SuperSterasyl Ceramic Candles or Super Sterasyl Ceramic Candles) to produce safe, clean drinking water from municipal or natural water sources.

Made of food grade, high density polypropylene, the Doulton LP-5 Gravity Filter System has less weight than its stainless steel sibling, has an excellent reputation for durability, and also has a telescoping design that makes it easy to transport.

When used with SuperSterasyl candles that have a 0.2 micron thick layer of silver impregnated in their ceramic shells, the Doulton LP-5 Gravity Filter System effectively removes pathogenic bacteria such as E.coli, cholera, salmonella, shigella, typhoid etc with greater than 99.99% efficiency. It also removes 100% removal of pathogenic cysts such as cryptosporidium parvum, giardia lamblia, guinea worm, etc.

Inside the ceramic shell you will find a packed bed of coconut shell granular activated carbon (GAC) for the removal of chlorine, VOC’s (volatile organic compounds), industrial solvents, bad taste and odor, etc.

Moral of the story?

Before purchasing ANY water filter, make certain it will remove the things you need removed. In Rodney’s case we suggest finding out the sizes of the unwanted contaminants and making certain they have sizes larger than 1 micron since filters like the Doulton LP-5 Gravity Filter System can take out 98% of contaminants in the .02 .03 micron range and 99.999% of contaminants .9 microns or larger.

Doulton LP-5 Gravity Filter System

Note: A quick search on nematodes turned revealed that they have lengths of around 2.5mm (2,500 microns) or less.

With that out of the way, please remember that the best preparation for an emergency begins long before the event takes or looms on the immediate horizon. Properly planning and preparing by stockpiling clean drinking water, emergency rations, candles, a radio that receives NOAA broadcasts, weather resistant gear, waterproof matches, a tarp, blankets, medical supplies, a supply unscented chlorine bleach, etc. can lessen the immediate sting of a short-term emergency and make surviving longer emergencies more likely.

1. After collecting the water in a container, let any suspended particles settle to the bottom and gently pour the clear water off the top into a second container. Filter this water using a clean piece of cloth or coffee filter to remove any remaining particles.

2. To disinfect by boiling, bring the water to a rolling boil and boil for a least 1 minute. Boil longer at high attitudes or if the water is from a source suspected to have Giardia or other protozoa (5 minutes boiling time is recommended at 10,000 feet above sea level). Boiling will kill disease-causing microorganisms present in water, but will concentrate non-volatile chemical contaminates, so it is unwise to boil for longer than necessary.

3. Let the water cool at least 30 minutes. You can re-oxygenate the water by pouring the water back and forth between two clean containers. This will improve the taste.

4. To disinfect by chlorination, use ordinary household chlorine bleach. Sodium hypochlorite with a concentration of 5.25% to 6% should be the only active ingredient in the bleach. There should not be any added soap or fragrances. One major bleach manufacturer has also added sodium hydroxide as an active ingredient, which will not pose a health risk for water treatment. Add 16 drops (¼ teaspoon) of liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water, or 8 drops per 2-liter bottle of water. Stir to mix. If you do not have a dropper, use the following (instructions) to measure the correct amount of bleach.

8 drops = 1/8 teaspoon, 16 drops = 1/4 teaspoon and 32 drops = 1/2 teaspoon.

5. Let the water stand 30 minutes to give the chlorine time to kill the microorganisms present. This method is not guaranteed to be effective against certain encysted protozoa.

6. If it smells of chlorine, you can use it. If it does not smell of chlorine, add 16 more drops of chlorine bleach per gallon of water (or 8 drops per 2-liter bottle of water), stir, let it stand 30 minutes, and smell it again. If it smells of chlorine, you can use it. If it does not smell of chlorine, discard it and find another source of water. The only agent used to purify water should be household liquid bleach. Other chemicals, such as iodine or water treatment products sold in camping or surplus stores that do not contain 5.25 percent sodium hypochlorite are not recommended.

7. If the chlorine taste in the water is too strong after disinfection, pour it from one clean container to another several times. This will drive some of the chlorine off as a gas, lowering the level of chlorine in the water and improving the taste.

Source: Emergency Water Supplies and Treatment (Fact Sheet No. 6.704 by R. Waskom)

Not to sound like a broken record, but the creators of the instructions above (and ANY instructions you read on the internet or in books/magazines) could not possibly know the exact specifics of every situation where a person or group needs to create safe drinking water. Nor could they know the full list of contaminants one might find in their source water. Use the above instructions as a general guide only.

Depending upon the size of your group, that COULD amount to quite a large amount of water. Ironically, having spent a lot of time in areas where blizzards routinely knocked out power, extreme cold caused pipes to freeze, etc., we have very few collective memories of people rushing out to purchase water as part of their pre-storm shopping. Just bread, milk, eggs, candles, batteries… and in many cases (literally) beer.

Moral of the Story?

Don’t forget the water! No matter how you have store or create it through appropriate filtering techniques, you will need safe, clean drinking water.

If anyone thinks they have a legitimate offer of assistance to make this fellow, please fill out our online form and we will forward your information along to him.

We need and URGENT quote on 150,000 Doulton W9361122
SS-2 Gravity fet filter system.

Many thanks for response ASAP.

Best regards.

Julio N.

As of right now we know of two companies that carry the Doulton W9361122, SS-2 Gravity Fed Water Filter: Filters Fast (filtersfast.com) and Water Filters (waterfilters.net).

We seriously doubt, though, that either of those companies — or any distribution company has 150,000 units readily available. Therefore, it may make sense for you to contact a representative of the company that manufactures the Doulton SS2: http://www.britishberkefeld.com/.

Doulton SS-2 Gravity Fed Water Filter Features and Specifications of the Doulton SS2 “Pour-Through” Gravity Fed System: High Grade Stainless Steel Construction Requires No External Plumbing Compact and Easy to Operate Easily Converted to the SS-4, a unit which utilizes 4 ceramic filters instead of 2 Dimensions: Assembled 8″ x 19″ / Stored 8″ x 13.5″ Capacity: 12 GPD (with 2 filters) 24 GPD (with 4 filters) Upper Reservoir Holds 2.11 Gallons (8 liters) Untreated Water Lower Reservoir Holds 2.11 Gallons (8 liters) Treated Water With regard to filtering capabilities, the Doulton W9361122, SS-2 Gravity Fed Water Filter reduces: Chlorine by 99.99% Cysts by 99.99% Organic Chemicals by 99.99% Parasites by 99.99% Particulates by 99.99% Pathogenic Bacteria (i.e. E. Coli, Cholera, Typhoid, etc.) by 99.99% Rust & Sediment by 99.99%

One thing we know for SURE: If the authorities say, “Evacuate!”, don’t sit around like a lump on a log. Secure your property or properties as best you can (the link above has tips for that) and get out of the storm’s way!

Too many people think a storm will ‘blow over’ by the time it reached them and that the government is ‘pulling their leg’ when it comes to flood predictions, wind estimates, etc.

Entire cities have gotten leveled by hurricanes in the past. Don’t think it can’t and/or won’t happen again!

What if my property gets destroyed and I wasn’t there?

At least you’re ALIVE. Don’t think for one minute that you and a few family members or close friends pushing as hard as you can against the door to keep Mother Nature out of your home or business will do anything but put you and all those around you in the middle of something SHE intends to destroy — effectively making you and yours the meat filling in a demolished building sandwich.

Water quality after the hurricane passes?

Municipal Water: As a general rule of thumb, assume the worst when it comes to water quality after an event such as a hurricane until local health officials give the ‘all clear’ sign… and STILL test your water for contaminants such as bacteria, nitrates, and heavy metals such as copper, lead, iron, chromium, etc.

Just because the water filtration plant either survived unscathed or received the necessary repairs does not mean the miles of pipes leading to your faucet didn’t suffer damage.

Well Water: As we have said MANY times in the past and, will probably say several hundred more times in the future, no one but you has responsibility for the quality of the water coming out of your well.

We suggest not using your well until all flood waters have subsided and the area around your wellhead has dried so you can examine it for signs of water breach.

If ANY flood water (which definitely contained innumerable drinking water contaminants) seeped into the wellhead area you will definitely want to perform a thorough well disinfection… and for that we always suggest contacting a local water well servicing company or at the very least getting detailed instructions from your local health department.

Then, even after you get the ‘thumbs up’ sign from a certified water testing laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories which will test your water for a LOT more (noteworthy!) parameters than you can test for on your own, we still suggest performing a battery of simple tests on a regular basis for at least three to six months after the visual aftereffects of a natural disaster have gone away.

Why continue testing? Simple: Whenever flood waters enter an area and then leave, they leave behind a cornucopia of potentially harmful deposits that will, in time, find their way into bodies of surface water. Those bodies of water, at some point, do interact with, and often times directly affect, of surrounding water sources — despite the fact that drinking water aquifers exist deep in the ground.

Minute and not-so-minute cracks in the rock formations encasing the aquifers will eventually allow potentially contaminated water from the surface access to the aquifers.

Moral of the story?

We wish everyone formerly in the path of, currently getting battered by, and about to get thrashed by Hurricane Irene (and ANY hurricane!) the best of luck during extremely difficult times.

• Weather.Com — Great site for continuously updated Hurricane news.
• National Hurricane Center — Excellent site created and maintained by the National Weather Service for the purpose of helping people get ready for, and hopefully recover after, a hurricane makes landfall in the United States. On our last visit to this site we noted that they had audio instructions in both English and Spanish.
• Drinking Water Safety During/After Flooding — Similar to what we wrote above, but still might prove useful.

• Preparing for High Winds: How to Protect a Home from Damage — Practical guide to getting one’s home, office or other building ready for potentially damaging high speed hurricane winds.

Stay safe, play it smart and always have a plan!

– Water Testing Blog Staff

The disease ran rampant, and continues to run rampant across Haiti because the country’s sanitation system, or more accurately because of its LACK of a decent sanitation system. Without a way to properly process (disinfect/sanitize) human waste, the vessel by which cholera and many other diseases spread, that waste can easily find its way into water supplies where it has the opportunity to infect many more people.

Sounds nasty, but that grim story has existed as a harsh reality for the residents of Haiti and other areas we in the United States and other ‘Western’ countries have labeled as ‘Third World’.

The disease was originally endemic to the Indian subcontinent, particularly around the Ganges river. Trade routes by land and sea helped spread it to Russia, then to western Europe, then America during the Irish immigration period. Cholera is no longer considered a pressing health threat in Europe and North America due to filtering and chlorination of water supplies, but still heavily affects developing countries. ( source )

Stopping the spread of cholera and other diseases

Several people have come forward and blamed the Haitian government and a number of emergency relief agencies for not having enough medicines and vaccines to properly treat those who have already contracted chlorera. We think those people’s words have some merit, but not much.

The real problem lies with Haiti’s inferior sanitation and clean water distribution system. The disease normally spreads through contaminated drinking water so… instead of treating the problem after-the-fact, action needs to get taken on the front end where initial contamination occurs — and that means stopping the flow of infection waste into the water supply.

Advanced water purification and sewage systems mean the developed world no longer faces a major threat from cholera. The disposal and sterilisation of anything that may be infected is an important way of stopping its spread. ( source )

We do not have all the answers

Now before anyone gets on their high horse and asks, “Well do you know how to stop the flow of infectious waste into the Third World’s water supply?” No… No, we do not. We do know, however, that the answer lies in clean water because fewer people getting infected will, in the end, mean fewer people having the ability to spread the disease.

Since digging up all of Haiti or any other Third World country and installing proper sanitation systems would cost far more than anyone would want to pay, we suspect the solution will have to come from making safe, clean drinking water available to the masses.

Simplicity… a beautiful thing

In a country like Haiti where power lines may or may not reach many areas and the power may or may not always flow through the lines if they do exist, obviously more complex, powered water purification systems such as ultraviolet disinfection (which require power) could prove useless at the times when people might need them most.

About a month ago we talked about a series of gravity feed filters made by Doulton that use special ceramic filters to remove/reduce levels of potentially harmful Cysts (i.e. Cryptosporidium, Giardia, etc.), Particulates (i.e. Rust & Sediment Creating Turbidity), and Bacteria (i.e. E. Cholera, E. Coli, Typhoid, Shigella, Klebsiella Terrigena, etc.).

Today we’d like to offer a different gravity ceramic filter system for your consideration. This one, the Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System uses three Katadyn ceramic depth filters remove bacteria, cysts, algae, protozoa, sediment, dirt, spores, some viruses, and other disease causing agents… down to the 0.2 micron level.

Made from BPA-free plastic and capable of producing roughly 1 gallon of filtered water per hour, Katadyn claims each Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System has a life expectancy of 40,000 gallons.

What does that mean in the real world? Quite simply, it means that a household or village could set up a Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System and continually feed it source water for a period of roughly 4 1/2 years and get one gallon of vastly improved drinking water each and every hour during that time.

Within that time period the individual three advanced Katadyn ceramic depth filters (20743) in the Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System will need replacing every 13,000 gallons. But still… If used non-stop, that equals more than 500 days of continuous clean water production without need to change a filter!

Therefore, when a major disaster strikes and flood waters have contaminated private wells, prolonged power outages have stopped water treatment facilities from distributing safe tap water, and stores have run out of pre-packaged bottled water… people will need to find a way to stay hydrated.

Micropur MP1 water purifier tablets give people the ability to disinfect drinking water in times of emergency. When used as directed, Micropur MP1 tablets remove and/or render harmless specific contaminants that would make contaminated water unsuitable for drinking.

As the only EPA registered purification tablets on the market, Micropur MP1 water purifier tablets currently reside in the pockets and backpacks of campers, hikers, military personnel, emergency relief workers and pretty much anyone that may find them self in a situation where their supply of safe water has run out and a need to drink water of questionable origin arises.

In just a few short hours, bacteria, viruses, cryptosporidium, and Giardia (if they existed) all get rendered harmless… without the need for harsh chemicals such as iodine or chlorine. Don’t get us wrong, though. In times of need a supply of iodine tablets and/or chlorine can save your life.

According to Katadyn, the manufacturers of Micropur MP1 water purifier tablets, their product leaves its users with fresh, clean tasting drinking water that has no unpleasant chemical aftertaste.

How long do the tablets take to work?

Katadyn claims that adding one tablet to a liter of water and letting it sit for a period of four hours will give its product time enough to make the water safe to drink.

And in conclusion…

Do we believe the Micropur MP1 water purifier tablets have the ability to remove ALL unwanted contaminants in times of disaster? Not hardly! Flood waters contain trace elements of countless toxic chemicals whose levels only the most sophisticated of filtering equipment could reduce (notice we didn’t say remove…).

Would we suggest keeping a box of these tablets in a safe, dry place for when nature or some other force decides to make normally drinkable water unsafe? Absolutely!

Used by a number of relief organizations around the world when disaster strikes, The Doulton W9361122, SS-2 Gravity Fed Water Filter provides clean drinking water to communities that would otherwise go without. used by many of the world’s leading relief organizations to provide clean water in times of emergency.

While many other emergency water filters rely upon some sort of pump, manual or battery/electric powered, the Doulton W9361122, SS-2 Gravity Fed Water Filter uses naturally occurring gravity to pull unfiltered water through its 7″ Super Sterasyl Candles.

Simply pour untreated water into the top reservoir and allow it to travel through the unit’s ceramic filter candles. Gravity then pulls the filtered water into a lower reservoir where users may access it using a tap on the front of the system.

Features and Specifications of the Doulton SS2 “Pour-Through” Gravity Fed System:

• High Grade Stainless Steel Construction
• Requires No External Plumbing
• Compact and Easy to Operate
• Easily Converted to the SS-4, a unit which utilizes 4 ceramic filters instead of 2
• Dimensions: Assembled 8″ x 19″ / Stored 8″ x 13.5″
• Capacity: 12 GPD (with 2 filters) 24 GPD (with 4 filters)
• Upper Reservoir Holds 2.11 Gallons ( 8 liters ) Untreated Water
• Lower Reservoir Holds 2.11 Gallons (8 liters ) Treated Water

With regard to filtering capabilities, the Doulton W9361122, SS-2 Gravity Fed Water Filter reduces:

• Chlorine by 99.99%
• Cysts by 99.99%
• Organic Chemicals by 99.99%
• Parasites by 99.99%
• Particulates by 99.99%
• Pathogenic Bacteria (ie E. Coli, Cholera, Typhoid, etc.) by 99.99%
• Rust & Sediment by 99.99%

Compact and efficient, the SS2 Gravity FEd Water Filter makes the perfect addition to anyone’s emergency preparedness kit and ideal for apartments, boats, RV’s, and use while traveling.

1. Boil the water — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states: “Boiling water will kill most types of disease-causing organisms that may be present. If the water is cloudy, filter it through clean cloths or allow it to settle, and draw off the clear water for boiling. Boil the water for one minute, let it cool, and store it in clean containers with covers.” This method has worked for a long time and is widely regarded as one of the oldest methods of domestic water treatment used to kill harmful organisms.
2. Chlorinate the water with bleach — The US Environmental Protection Agency EPA recommends that you then “Add 1/8 teaspoon (or 8 drops) of regular, unscented, liquid household bleach for each gallon of water, stir it well and let it stand for 30 minutes before you use it. Store disinfected water in clean containers with covers.” While this method will not kill off ALL the harmful organisms which may have gotten into your water supply, it will kill of a good number of them. Please note that the US Environmental Agency suggests filtering cloudy or otherwise murky water through a cloth to remove sediment and other solids.

Once the emergency has passed, water quality experts suggest that people get their water tested professionally before resuming normal consumption and periodically check the water for a short time afterwards to make sure all fitration and purification equipment has continued to operate properly.

• Symptoms shown by a person afflicted by Giardia include, but may not be limited to, diarrhea, fatigue, and cramps.
• Symptoms shown by a person afflicted by Cryptosporidium include, but may not be limited to, diarrhea, nausea and stomach cramps. Additionally, this type of bacteria resists many common disinfection methods quite well.

note: Individuals with suppressed or compromised immune systems may exhibit worse symptoms for longer periods of time than peole with ‘healthy’ or ‘normal’ immune systems.

The best way to guarantee the safety of your water after a flood means getting the water tested by certified water professionals. Home water test kits for bacteria serve as excellent maintenance tools for checking the bacteria levels of well water, but in the event of an actual ‘incident’ such as a flood, which may have caused the contamination of your drinking water, always seek the advice and assistance of Water Quality Experts in your area.

Locating Certified Drinking Water Laboratories

The United States Environmental Protection Agency suggests you contact the State Certification Officer for Drinking Water Laboratories for your state.

Click here to access a list of contact phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses for State Certification Officer for Drinking Water Laboratories on the United States Environmental Protection Agency web site.