Water issues: how to avoid using tons of plastic bottles in Asia?
Replies: 22 - Last Post: Jul 31, 2012 9:42 PM Last Post By: squidgy
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Water issues: how to avoid using tons of plastic bottles in Asia?
Hey,Me and my boyfriend will be leaving on a 6 month trip to Asia later this year. I'm a heavy water drinker and in Europe I just drink tap water whereever I am, so I don't make a lot of garbage this way. I know in Asia this will be a bad idea, or we'll get pretty sick.
My problem is: I don't want to buy plastic bottles of water on our trip, during these 6 months, that will be a huge pile of garbage. We do have a water filter (MSR Miniworks) which we used in Morocco and when we're on the countryside. To use the filter, u have to pump the water, and I don't think I will be pumping up tap water everyday in Asia during 6 months (although it would be a great workout for my biceps).
So, I was wondering if you know any types of (safe) waterfilters that don't use this pomping system? How do u people work around the issue of not making too much waste?
Greetings,
Sandra
Edited by: sandra1978
3
You took it in good humour, Sandra - for which I'm grateful :)I had no idea English wasn't your native language - you certainly write as if it is.
But you haven't made a mistake (and I was having a bit of fun, not pointing out an error): my dictionary lists 23 different meanings for 'heavy', not including the four slang meanings - and, on a quick scan, your usage is appropriate in at least two cases.
It might be worth posting your question on the Get Stuffed branch too; it's full of food and drink questions.
To answer your question: my partner and I go camping a lot from March till October, often in Britain. Almost all local authorities in Britain chlorinate the water (sometimes, when you run a bath it smells like bleach!). We hate the taste of chlorine, so, at home, we filter our tap water in a BRITA jug for which you can buy BRITA filter cartridges (although supermarkets now sell their own label cartridges for BRITA jugs for much less). We keep a separate BRITA jug and filters in the car for camping trips.
There's no pumping involved since the jug just relies on gravity: you fill the top half from the tap and it drips through the cartridge to the bottom half - maybe it takes about five minutes for a litre. If you're really worried about the quality of the water, camping shops sell tablets which you can add to it to 'purify' it but I've never tried them.
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- where in Asia? Tab water is safe in the vast majority of places. SEAsia anyway, can't talk for India/Bangladesh.
- plenty of refill places around, where you can refill your own bottles for little money.
- Drink more beer. Safe to drink, inexpensive, makes everything more beautiful than it really is.
5
Oh, come on, I had such great trips with beer goggles...all those endless ferry trips with a couple of beers...or sipping a few cans while bumping your way across the Lao mountain ranges at night...Tab water might not be tasty in this part of the world but it certainly is drinkable in towns and cities. Have been drinking it since 20 years all over seasia and never got sick.
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fair enough. I drink UK tap water and would laugh at anyone who didn't....but I did hear of a Spanish girl who got very sick from it. Home germs taste best.we are asked for advice, which is generally what we would do in OP's shoes. So that's what I said.
enjoy your beer, and why not - but remember some of us find that the stuff is disgusting. Not the effects, the taste! :-)
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Hi,#9, I was indeed thinking of buying the Steripen. Do u have any experience using it? I don't think u can get the chlorine taste out of tap water with a Steripen, which my MSR filter does. But the MSR filter doesn't kill virusus which the steripen does (I think).
#4, I don't think tap water is drinkable generally in Asia... we're planning to go to: Russia-Mongolia-China-Vietnam-Cambodja-Laos and Thailand. I'm a tap water drinker in Belgium, and Europe in general but I don't want to take the risk of getting ill by drinking it in Asia.
So I guess I'll probably take my MSR miniworks with me and buy a Steripen also to keep the plastic bottle use to a minimum.
13
Do u have any experience using it?
No, sorry. I don't think u can get the chlorine taste out of tap water
You can do the traditional "hide the flavor with powdered drink mix." This comes from the days when travelers had to use iodine to purify water. You can leave your containers overnight so some of the chlorine taste goes away. Or you can tell yourself that it's an Asian form of mineral water ;-) .
