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Treating your Water when Traveling to Avoid Disease

Traveling beyond the borders of your own country means that you could be entering an area in which waste management and water treatment facilities are a luxury. While foreign industrialized countries have ready access to proper medical facilities and such, the same cannot always be said for the water sources, whether by tap or through well areas. In addition, travel to third world or developing countries means that you should always assume that the water is not safe to drink.

Water is a major source of illness when you are traveling as it may be contaminated with a variety of viruses, parasites, bacteria or all of the above. Several major diseases stem from the consumption of contaminated water or even just exposure to it. Cholera, ambebiasis and typhoid fever are a few diseases that are caused by the ingesting contaminated water. Of course, there are also several diseases you can catch by swimming or wading in contaminated waters like Schistosomiasis, guinea worm disease, Buruli ulcer disease and river blindness.

When traveling, you should avoid swimming or wading in standing or stagnant water as they definitely would be harboring the insects and parasites that cause disease. In addition, you can treat the water that is available to drink so that you do not become ill.

Drinking Water Treatment Options

Not all countries have water treatment facilities where chlorination is used for tap water. Therefore, you should be prepared to treat your water so that you will know it is safe to drink. Boiling, filtering, chemical treatment or all of the above measures can be used. If bottled water is available, stock up on it. Do not use tap water to wash your fruits and vegetables before eating as it could become contaminated. Also, avoid ordering drinks with ice in them as you are not guaranteed that the ice was made from bottled or treated water.

Bottled water is your top options for a drinking water source as long as it is from a source you trust. Before drinking up, inspect your bottled water before opening it to ensure that the seal is not broken. Many tourists have become ill by buying bottles of water from street vendors and street urchins who just collect water bottles and then refill them from local water sources.

Boiling water is a smart move for drinking purposes. It is best to allow the water to boil continuously for one minute so that viruses, parasites and bacteria are killed in the process. Allow the water to cool before drinking. And if you are at higher elevations, you will need to boil the water longer. Some travelers say that adding a pinch of salt during the boiling process will improve the taste of the water.

Iodine is often the chemical of choice when it comes to treating water to kill disease causing critters. The process is known as chemical disinfection and the iodine used for treating water can often be found in stores that sell camping goods or even in pharmacies. Water that appears cloudy should be strained first to remove floating things as well as sediment before chemical treatment. You should be aware that iodine does not always kill everything that can cause disease.

Portable water filters are successful at removing some infectious elements but it does not remove viruses from the water. Therefore, after the filtering process, you would still need to boil the water or chemically treat it before consumption.

Getting a game plan in place in regards to drinking water is the smart move to make during the planning stages of your trip. You do not want to get blindsided by vomiting, diarrhea and a host of other maladies because no safety protocols were followed in regards to your drinking water.