How Do You Find Water In The Wild?

In case you ever get stranded in the wild without an obvious source of fresh water, here are a few things you can do to collect some.

Hey BrainStuff, Jonathan here. Lots of situations can leave you stranded in the wild without supplies: Camping miscommunications, unexpected side quests, alien abductions with imprecise return drops, and so on.

Whatever the reason you find yourself out there, you’ll need to find water. A minimum of two quarts per day to maintain good health – that is, to keep your blood circulating. Which you want to do.

And that brings us to today’s question: How do you find water in the wild? But first, I should mention that this information is for your education only. Legally speaking, I can’t recommend that you do anything I say.

Let’s assume that you can’t find any large sources of fresh water: There’s not a raincloud in the sky, and no streams, rivers, or lakes nearby.

You can dig a well. Look for mud, or damp soil in a dry riverbed -- there may be groundwater near the surface. Dig a hole about a foot wide and a foot deep. If there’s water, your well will start filling up. Even in the desert, you can try digging at the low point between dunes, near vegetation. Put rocks in the bottom of your well to keep sediment from stirring up into the water, and line the sides with wood to prevent the walls from caving in.

Well water needs to be purified before you drink it. Give it a boil for 10 minutes. Even water that looks clean can harbor nasty microbes that will make you sicker than I get after I have shrimp.

But if your wells turn up dry, you can create structures to collect water from thin air. Like a solar still. You’ll need some plastic sheeting, a container to collect the water, and a rock. Having a length of tubing or some definitely-non-poisonous vegetation would be a bonus.

Choose a damp bit of ground that gets sunlight for most of the day. Dig a bowl-shaped hole about 3 feet across and 2 feet deep. In the bottom, dig out enough space to place your container. If you have a tube, place one end at the bottom of the container and secure the other end on the surface outside the hole. If you have some leaves or other greenery that you know for sure are not toxic, tear them up and add them to the walls of the bowl.

Place the plastic loosely over the hole and hold down the edges with rocks. But, not the one you've put aside. That one, you want to put in the center of the sheet so that it sags in a little more than a foot, directly over the container. Add more rocks and soil to the edges of the sheet for stability.

The heat of the sun will evaporate moisture in the ground, producing condensation on the plastic. It’ll drip and collect in your container, and you can either sip it directly through your tube or retrieve the container at sunset.

If your energy is low, you'll want to avoid all that digging. The transpiration technique yields less water, but all it requires is tying a knot in a plastic bag. Find a definitely-non-poisonous leafy tree or shrub that will be in the sun for most of the day. Tie the bag around a branch.

Over the course of the day, the plant will ‘exhale’ (or transpire) water vapor that’ll collect at the bottom of the bag. Untie it or poke a hole in it to collect the water, then tie it off again and reuse the bag. Plants transpire a lot – about 10 percent of the moisture in our air comes from transpiration.

Water you get from a solar still or transpiration should be safe to drink, but it never hurts to give it a boil.

SOURCES:

[FyberOptic]

I was in a survival situation recently. Luckily all I had to do was reset my router.

[GIANT]

Pretty much my entire childhood was a survival scenario. Growing up in the South; I learned to hunt, fish, farm, and cook from a young age up until 10 when we moved away to a larger city. It's still pretty cool being able to walk out into the woods with nothing and build a farmstead for myself. God help my buddies trying to keep up with me. lol

[youdonotknowme]

One time I was dying of dehydration in the desert. Then I remembered I had a bottle of water in my cup holder. I cracked it open and took a sip. Then I turned on the air conditioning in my jeep. Problem solved.

[laahiru]

Allways do the rain dance. works for me everytime

[Xiefux]

I have never drank wild water before. Is it as friendly and easy to handle like domesticated water?

[Photoandcargeek]

The amount of water you need depends on the weather (temperature, humidity, wind) and on your physical activity. With temps of around 20C, 1.5l per day is enough (happy with 1.89l too) and that comprises of drinking water and water contained in your food.

[stefan-stocksmadesimple]

It depends on the situation . You have to be ready to adapt for any circumstance . This may not work for you ideally but it can be useful for sure

[vendettachicken]

I ended up being stranded in a wildlife management area when I had a breakdown on a quad far from any road and in very very dense cypress trees. The walk out was miles and it was dark. I had almost nothing with me. I did manage to make it about 3/4 of the way out of this area. All I found to drink was a pump running for a rice well. Nothing like drinking farm chemicals and your lips being stained orange from iron to get you in the habit of carrying water.

[akaking]

I've fallen into quicksand too many times. my tip would be to find hard surface around, place your weight on it and slowly drag yourself out. Or if you are close to a river or a lake go into it. quicksand would be less dance there

[luise]

those are things that actually work really well "if you have plastic bags or sheets" I'm not saying there bad ideas but when you get stranded you usually have more important things to worry about than to carry around a piece of plastic you now like food😊

[erasmusso]

If I learned anything from Bear Grylls, is that you never drink any water even if you boil it, you always drink your piss.

[Martin]

I don’t care how illegal it is, if I’m dying of thirst it’s well worth the fines!

[sherrymason]

I've tried the things you mention but a question. What if you didn't bring any plastic wrap or bags with you. What can be used in place of plastic when making the solar still or collecting water from trees? I have had to use my shirt to remove dew from the ground and suck that but it wasn't enough.

[RajeshJonnalagaddaisHere]

can you please make a video on how a gyroscope works in an areoplane? how does it indicate whether the plane is moving left or right? how does it help the pilot while rotation n keeping in line with horizon.

[KnightOfIsrael]

Hey could you test or research the gravity power machine by William Skinner in one of your video? It would be interesting to hear from you about the topic!

[MillyR]

Can you guys make a video on how different foods can affect our dreams? Such as msg

[yusadirga]

I scroll pass through this video but comeback to watch in case in emergency the future.lol

[SarahQuinnandFranklin]

well if you boil the water you'll lose some to evaporation, so if you don't need to do it for killing bacteria it's better not to

[jackperkins]

how do I tie my shoe laces if I misplace my knee caps?

[Thumbsupurbum]

I never go camping or hiking without a bottle of iodine tablets.