Water Purification by Boiling
water purification by boiling does readily kill giardia.
And you don't need to do it for five minutes as some
literature states. Just bring the water to a boil
and giardia will be dead.
The problem is that if you are on a major hike or
backpacking trip, you probably don't have this overwhelming
desire to carry the amount of fuel needed to boil
water for days. You also may not want to spend your
time doing this type of water purification,
when you could be hiking or reading or having witty
If it's hot, and the humidity is low, you should be
drinking about a quart an hour when you are backpacking.
You can easily down 7-10 quarts a day. You'd spend
all your time and fuel boiling drinking water for
giardia if you had to purify water that way. I've
done it. I don't recommend it.
you do boil water for backpacking water purification,
you'll probably want to give it a little extra boiling
time at higher elevations. The general rule is to
add one minute for each 1,000 rise in elevation.
This is probably more important if you are worried
about water borne organisms other than giardia - like
typhoid. Giardia is quite easy to kill with heat.
My one big recommendation for water purification by
boiling is to make sure the water is actually boiling
- a rolling boil with big bubbles coming up and shaking
It's surprising how many think that a few very tiny
bubbles on the bottom of a pan constitutes boiling.
That's not boiling. That's just a few bubbles.
Kids are especially likely to mistakenly think that
a few bubbles constitutes boiling. But so do some
They're eager. They're watching the camp stove heat
the water. But they sometimes don't wait long enough.
Perhaps that's why some literature suggests the long
boiling times. They figure dumb people aren't smart
enough to know what boiling is, so they tell them
to boil it a long time in hopes that they might eventually
get the water to an actual boil.
For water purification, bring the pan of water to
a rolling boil, and the giardia will be dead.
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