M any people throughout the United States and the world have found themselves in desperate straits due to natural or man made disasters. One of the immediate and common consequences of these disruptions is failure of the normal drinking water supply.
Few things are more life threatening than the lack of clean, safe drinking water.
Hurricane Mitch has reduced life in much of Central America to a primitive survival condition, leaving millions at risk of waterborne diseases. Recent flooding in Texas and Kansas has created significant concern regarding contamination of municipal water supply systems. Earthquakes in California, Japan and Columbia have left their victims seeking water where ever they could find it. Water can, of course, be boiled to eliminate any pathogenic organisms that might have contaminated it, but boiling does nothing to remove chemical pollutants that might be present. It also requires the use of fuel at a time when fuel might be scarce.