Camping & Hiking

Why Purify Your Water?

While much eco-friendly travel advice focuses on buying carbon offsets and choosing “green hotels”, other less dramatic habits can actually have a greater effect over time. Take bottled water. On the one hand, travelers are told, “Don’t drink the water” in a lot of foreign countries. On the other hand, bottled water is an environmental disaster. It takes a tremendous amount of petroleum to process the water, make the plastic bottles, and ship it to where you buy it. Then even in the U.S., less than 25 percent of the disposable bottles get recycled. In some foreign countries that percentage is zero; every one you throw away goes into a landfill.

The solution? Carry your own personal water purifier to stay healthy and eco-friendly. There are a few different kinds of purifiers, generally breaking down into four categories. There are pumps, purifiers that use ultraviolet light, gravity filters, and purification tablets. Depending on whether you are hiking through the wilderness or spending a week in Mexico, different filtration methods will be appropriate.

What to buy? Consider your needs and the condition of the water you are likely to run across. For most travelers, ultraviolet purification or a simple charcoal filter will be fine for water coming from the tap. In areas where water may come from a stream, such as on a hiking trip through the Andes, something that treats a wider range of threats may be needed.

The following water purifiers are the best available and are both convenient and effective.