By and large, the cheapest and fastest way to ensure water is safe to drink is with chemicals. The most common chemical to treat water is chlorine, iodine is a distant second. Twenty drops of bleach in a gallon of water, mix thoroughly (cap and shake, for instance), let sit and then check. If it doesn't have a distinct chlorine odor, add another 5 drops and repeat. This takes care of the great majority of bacteria that can exist in water. So, add a gallon of bleach to your preps? However... Bleach degrades. Year-old bleach is only half as effective, and 2 year old bleach isn't much more than salty water. That's at room temperature, bleach that's sat in a Phoenix garage through the summertime should be considered 2 years old.
There is a long term storage substitute. Walmart carries many different brands of pool shock. Check the label, you want a hypochlorite crystal - sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite or potassium hypochlorite. Stay away from anything that says dichloro or trichloro in the active ingredients. This has a 15 year shelf life, and you can make up as much or as little as you like. Bleach has ~5.5% by weight of hypochlorite in it, so figuring how much active ingredient is in the shock you buy (anywhere between 50-70%) add the crystal to your bleach container to get that amount of concentration. For instance, a gallon of water at 8.2 lbs needs 10.6 oz of 68% shock to make it a gallon of regular bleach. Figure lesser quantities accordingly, or a pinch of powder to a 16 oz container will disinfect it nicely if you are in a hurry. Bleach is handy for cleaning and disinfecting many different things, from wounds to floors, beds and cloth. A large container of pool shock is in my stash. Shouldn't one be in yours?
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