Filtering water through a piece of cloth alone will eliminate debris and dirt, but not much else. Still, it’s effective if that’s what you’re trying to do and if you can purify it afterwards.
How to Filter Water
The classic wilderness DIY filtration method is to layer various materials. Another popular meathod if you’re willing to lose a shirt in the process is using a t-shirt to filter your water. Lastly the easiest effective way is to boil your water but, that is if you are lucky enough to have started a fire
If these items are in a bag, or perhaps a tarp or piece of cloth, ensure the bottom is tied off, but has a small hole for water to drip through.
Start by putting in a layer of finer materials like sand, cloth, small pebbles, etc.
Then add some larger rocks and bits of charcoal (if you made a fire).
Then, start over with another fine layer, and coarse layer atop that.
It will look like a layer cake when you’re finished. This will eliminate impurities in the water, and some larger bacteria, but certainly not all of them.
Filtering water through a piece of cloth alone will eliminate debris and dirt, but not much else. Still, it’s effective if that’s what you’re trying to do and if you can purify it afterwards.
Boiling water is the most basic purification treatment for water. According to the EPA, one minute of a rolling boil will kill all of the bad stuff, including viruses. Any metal or glass container will do, but if you don’t have that available, you can heat rocks in a fire and place them into your receptacle.
One downside of boiling your water is that it obviously requires a fire, which in some cases isn’t possible. It also leads to evaporation and the loss of some water volume, which should be taken into account in situations where every drop may be precious.
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