Stir well and let it sit covered for 30 minutes. A slight chlorine odor should remain. You can also disinfect water by using iodine tablets available at sporting goods stores or halazone tablets available at pharmacies and drug stores. Follow the directions on the package for use. Both iodine and halazone tablets lose effectiveness with age.
Shelf life is three to five years for iodine and two years for halazone.
Even if you have a filtering device in your home, or access to a water purification vending machine, you may have to use bottled or treated water. Boil water advisories are issued because of the risk of biological contaminants and some home filtering devices and vending machines may not be effective against bacteria. Many of these devices only treat the aesthetic quality or mineral content of water. Check with the manufacturer about their product's effectiveness before using it. When the water quality monitoring of the bacterial quality and level of disinfection in your area indicates that the water is safe to drink the boil water notice will be lifted.