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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Solar Disinfection of Water (SODIS)


What a great discovery! People in third world countries can lay plastic bottles full of water on top of a tin roof or other reflective surface, in the sun for 24 hours, and the UV rays and heat will kill the germs in the water!



We can do that too! If you are worried that the water you stored might not be safe, just lay it out in the yard on a $1 mylar emergency blanket on a couple of sunny days, and it should be safe to drink.

(I mentioned this to my dad, and he said it isn't new, people have known about this for years. When he was a kid, he went out hunting with his uncle. They saw a big boulder that had rainwater collected in shallow pools all over the top of it. It had been sunny for a day or two after the rain. His uncle told him that the rainwater had been in the sun, so all the germs were killed.

And I know that I, personally, would rather drink the water on top of the sunny boulder than water in a puddle.)

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