Filthy Water Cannot be Washed

"Filthy Water Cannot be Washed." This is a West African proverb. We are in the 21st century, and yet there are still millions of people who walk miles everyday just to get water for their basic needs. It is said that in just one day, 200 million hours is spent by women on collecting water. Sadly, 880 million people (that's one in eight people) do not have access to clean water. Every year, 3.5 million people die of water-related diseases, and a child dies from filthy water every 20 seconds. (http://water.org/)

Question: Does boiling water make it safe to drink?

I asked my friend's father, a doctor who has worked at refugee camps. He says boiling water at 100 degrees Celsius for 10-15 minutes will kill the vegetative stage of most bacteria but in order to kill bacterial endospores, the water needs to be boiled for 1-2 hours. The Hepatitis B virus, however, won't die in boiling water. Causative bacteria such as Coliform bacterium and Tuberculosis bacterium, can be killed in 60-65 degrees Celcius water if boiled for 30 minutes but pathogenic bacteria such as Legionella won't.

So, the answer? Boiling water does not always make it safe to drink.

The thing we need to be most careful of during our travels is water. We plan to bring a portable electric kettle, a water filter, and a SteriPEN (UV water purifier), which we got as a wedding gift from a good friend of mine.

Traveling is fun and exciting but having the proper knowledge is crucial.

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