Emergency Survival Water Filtration With a Small Hand Pump, Water Bottle Filter, And Tubing

During the two months when I couldn't walk or stand due to an injury that resulted in acute exertional compartment syndrome affecting both of my entire legs, I had to drag myself around with drastically diminished upper body strength. I was I risk of death by dehydration as I was unable to access most of my water storage tanks. Luckily, by following survivalist best practices, I had 40 gallons of water that I could reach by dragging and propping myself up. The problem was, though it was originally city water, it had been stagnant in 20 gallon plastic tanks for almost a year. In my weakened state I didn't want to risk drinking it without filtration, but my filtration system was unfortunately out of reach in my disable state. Again luckily I had a redundant backup water filter plan, albeit at a tiny scale. It was my backpacker size water filter that fits in a standard hiking water bottle. I was able to connect the filter to tubing and a hand pump which allowed me to filter and transfer water from the storage tank to a daily use gallon glass water jugs. It was some of the hottest summer days and I needed to have the water jugs by my bedside day and night. This method allowed me to survive, though just barely. It took all of my limited strength and resolve to hold myself upright long enough to pump the water. I'd have to pump for a minute or so then collapse on my lap for several minutes, then pump again. It was barely able to push and lift myself up enough to get high enough to complete the task.

It's times like this that I think of when people out there try to minimize the value of having a preparedness and survival mindset. Had I not put in place those emergency plans and equipment, I'd either have died, or had to beg for help from the outside and thus become some else's problem, and a very expensive one at that.