Emory University Rollins School of Public Health

Tools of the trade

1) Clean water: Life overseas means that you’ll spend a lot of time staring at those little ‘floaty-things’ in your complimentary glass of water at the E-coli Café. There’s really no easy solution to this problem; everyone tells us to stay ‘well-hydrated’ but how do we do this in an area where our drinking/washing/irrigation/sanitation water all comes from the same source? You can only drink pasteurized or fermented beverages for so long. Here are the nuts and bolts to water purification. There are four ways to ‘clean’ water:

1. 
   Filtration- This involves screening out all those ‘nasties’ that are floating around in our iced-tea colored water. The smaller the spaces are within the filter the better. Look for filters with an ability to screen down to particles of one micron (these start at ~$55 to$75)
   
2. 
   Purification- Now we’re adding chemicals that will kill those ‘nasties’ for us.
   

• 
  Iodine at 2% USP is a relatively quick and simple method of purifying water for pennies. Add 10 drops into a standard Nalgene bottle (a.k.a.: 1 liter) of clear water and 20 drops to murky water. Wait for 20-30 minutes and enjoy … sort of. The taste is …..memorable
  

• 
  Chlorine Bleach with 5.25% (and no detergent additives!) will knock down all of the ‘cooties’ you’ll find in a gallon of clear water by adding 8 drops (16 if it looks like soup). Give it 20-30 minutes and then enjoy your swimming pool …. uh … I mean your cool and refreshing ‘drink’. A new product by Katadyn, called micropur, uses chlorine dioxide which improves taste … we hope!
  

• 
  Potassium Permanganate added by either a capful (PolarPure) or tablet (Potable-Aqua) to sixteen liters of cloudy water and you’re all set. A company called McNett makes something called Aquamira that reduces bad taste.
  

3. 
   Boiling- Time consuming and expensive (lots of fuel). You heat up your water until you start seeing bubbles on the bottom of the pot; wait five minutes more and let water cool down (keeping it covered the whole time)
   
4. 
   Solar Distillation- Very cheap but also takes a long time (12 to 24 hours). Find the cleanest looking water you can get, put it in CLEAR glass or plastic bottles and stand them out in direct sunlight all day. The sun’s UV rays will kill whatever’s in there. Try not disturb the ‘crud’ on the bottom of the bottle; drink from the top of the bottle
   

1)Katadyn Mini Filter Filters to .2 micron REI=$90

2)Katadyn Guide Filter Filters to .2 micron REI=$80

and uses iodine

3) Katadyn Hiker Filter “ – “ REI=$60

4) MSR MiniWorks Filters to .5 micron REI=$80

EX Filter

5) First Need Deluxe Filters to .5 micron REI=$91

Water Purifier

6)Pūr Explorer Water Filters to .2 micron E-Bay=

Purifier and uses iodine with ~$80-$90

charcoal filter to

improve taste

7)MIOX Purifier Uses mixed oxide, Mountaingear.com=

by MSR salt, and electricity $130

to kill ‘bugs’, etc.

The author was issued a Pūr Explorer in 1996 for a deployment to Bosnia, this same filter was carried through 2 and a half years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon. This filter is small, light, affordable, and most of all; highly effective! Highly recommended!

2) Shelter: If they haven’t found you a place … then there’s a problem! You’ll have a place with a roof but you may not have a bed net, etc. Here is a great deal on a queen sized bed net (that should fit over your entire house!), Bedroom Mosquito Bed Net- Large from Campmor (Item Number: 41109) for $39.99. Or a smaller version Mosquito Bar Single, (Item Number: 41108) for $25.99. Go to: (http://www.campmor.com) for other options.

3) Useful tidbits: Here are some odds and ends that can help you from this last year’s edition of World’s Most Dangerous Places:

• 
  For maps go to
  
  • 
    (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/index.html)
    
  • 
    (http://www.immigration-usa.com/maps)
    
  • 
    (http://www.atlapedia.com)
    
• 
  For world weather use
  
  • 
    (http://www.weather.com)
    
• 
  For Visa card ($$), currency conversions and time zones use
  
  • 
    Visa ATM Tracker (http://www.visa.com/cgi-bin/vee/pd/atm/main.html)
    
  • 
    Want to meet your friends from RSPH in Timbuktu but ran out of GFE money…. have family and friends wire you money at:
    

• 
  Universal Currency Converter (http://www.xe.net/currency/full)
  
• 
  The World Clock (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock)
  
• 
  Still clueless about metric? Good, so are we!
  
  • 
    Measurement converter (http://www.mplik.ru/~sg/transl)
    
• 
  National/local news for the area you’re traveling to
  
  • 
    AfricaNet (http://www.africanet.com)
    
  • 
    Middle East Network Info (http://menic.utexas.edu/menic/menic.html)
    
  • 
    BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world)
    

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