We've been using rain water to drink for the rainy season, curious how it would fair in a geiger counter test post-fukishima.
Carting 20 litre flagons of water from the local tessabahn is a bit of a chore, so this cool season I briefly considered using our locally piped water from the village water supply.
Our well water dried up two years ago, and most of the village is now on piped water.
I inspected the village water system, which is pumped from an aquifer, and merely for washing (not potable) and immediately ruled out using it for making drinking water.
1) The whole site pongs of raw sewage.
2) The concrete settling tank is crumbling, algae covered, and leaks.
3) The primary filters are rotten, and covered in clay deposits.
4) The village water table is heavily polluted with agrochemicals.
The above reverse osmosis and filtering systems would, remove most of the crud, but would soon become clogged and need replacing, but I suspect only the expensive reverse osmosis types would tackle the carcinogens in the agrochemical-laced piped water.
Our local tessabahn drinking water supply uses man-sized, basic three-stage filtering, with final high-pressure six inch square filters (It looks like a knee-high pressure cooker.)
But there's no laboratory reports on the water quality before and after processing!
By which it is safe to assume most of the agrochemicals in the ground water will still be in the 20 litre plastic flagons... and our cups of tea.
Consequently, I've settled on pouring the tessabahn flagons into a container loaded with 3kg of activated charcoal (contained in six carefully positioned Einstein tubes) and letting it soak for at least 24 hours before drinking it.
The charcoal is pre-washed, and only a little black comes through, which could be removed with a coffee filter paper.
A consumer tip I picked up from a hilltribe friend was to add a squirt of lime, or lemon, juice to your daily drinking water to help dissolve away kidney and bladder stones gradually forming in one's urinogenital system. Ascorbic acid would serve the same purpose.
I'd be interested to know if your village water has ever been properly analysed.
The general rule here seems to be if it's wet it's okay.
