"cjcampbell" wrote in message
oups.com...
Our missionaries use water filters, or they buy sealed bottled water
from a known source. It is very inconvenient. The water filters cost
P15,000 apiece (about $275). They are finicky and require frequent
maintenance and changing filters. They would, however, render your
water sample potable -- something even boiling would not do. Solar
stills would also work, but they produce distilled water which is not
as readily absorbed by the body as water that has some mineral content.

One problem that we see a lot is that water that has been purified is
very easily re-contaminated. Any dirty water that gets splashed into
the clean water, people who touch the water with unclean hands, cooking
utensils, or who just inadvertantly kick dirt into it, stray animals
that come over to investigate it, playing children who knock it over,
covering it with a dirty lid, whatever -- you end up having to do it
all over again. Standing water, even with the depth of only the
thickness of a quarter, is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and a
source of dengue fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Some 90% of the
health problems we see in our missionaries are from drinking
contaminated water, or from not drinking enough water. We get a lot of
dehydration, heat related disease, and gastroenteritis. More rarely
they get typhoid or dengue fever. We get these problems with just under
100 missionaries who are subject to far greater supervision than anyone
in New Orleans would get.

I guess everyone has an opinion, but the problems of purifying water
for 20,000 people seem to me to be a logistical nightmare. The only
solution is to get them out of there.

Yup. The survivalist skills and supplies that've been discussed here are
unfamiliar to most Americans of *all* levels of education--and for good
reason, I think. In a wealthy civilization, it is likely just not
cost-effective for everyone to invest individually in the training and
equipment to deal with extremely unlikely events, rather than relying on the
centralized rescue efforts that will need to occur anyway in the wake of a
major disaster.

Sure, it makes sense to stock up on a few days' food and water (which many
of those stranded in the hurricane presumably did, though they may not have
been able to carry much of it as they swam from their flooded homes). But it
would be an unwise use of scarce (or non-existent) resources for
impoverished city residents--who have much more pressing daily survival
needs--to invest in the esoteric and expensive training and equipment
discussed here, just to prepare for the remote possibility of a
once-in-a-century storm followed by a long delay in relief efforts despite
what was supposed to be an unprecedented level of government preparedness to
respond to a major disaster.

Look at it this way: in my experience, most pilots do not routinely carry
expensive, extensive survival gear when they fly. Instead, at best, they
file flight plans and rely on being rescued if they survive a crash.
Nonetheless, pilots are (probably accurately) perceived as being, on the
whole, exceptionally self-reliant. Yet a comparable reliance on rescuers,
when exhibited by the hurricane victims, is extolled by some here as
evidence of the "gimme mentality" of the "welfare class" (without a shred of
evidence that most of the victims in question actually lacked employment).
People filter their perceptions through their prejudices, and see what they
expect to see. (These remarks aren't directed at your comments, CJ; I'm just
using your post as a hook.)

--Gary