the Handbook for Primitive Living

in the Twenty-First Century.

Imagine if tomorrow you had no hydro, no running water, no fuel, no phone. How could you survive? This site is a thought experiment designed to answer that question.

Extracting Water From Earth

I saw demonstrated on television a method of extracting water from the ground using nothing more than a container and a sheet of clear plastic. It does not produce a large quantity of water, but some is better than none. What this method does is essentially distill water out of the soil.

Materials

• open-top water-tight container (bucket, margarine tub, flower vase, etc.)
• clear plastic sheet, approx. 1.5m x 1.5m [5ft x 5ft]
• tool to dig a hole (shovel, steel sheet, big spoon, etc.)
• weights (rocks, logs, paperweights, etc.)

Directions

1. Dig a hole approximately one metre (1m)[3.28ft, 1.1yd] in diameter and about half as deep.
2. Place an open-top water tight container in the middle of this hole.
3. Arrange the plastic sheet over the hole, and weigh down the edges so that it will not blow away, and forms a good seal with the ground - no gaps or wrinkles that would easily let air in or out of the hole.
4. Take a small stone (or other weight) and put it on top of the plastic sheet directly above the open container.

Explanation

Solar energy will turn this setup into a miniature greenhouse and solar distillery. Water in the soil will evaporate and condense on the inner surface of the plastic sheet. When enough condensate accumulates, drops will form, which will then run down the slight slope produced by the weight on top of the sheet, and then drop into your open-top container.

To get the water collected, you’ll need to take the plastic up, which will let all the hot, moist air out of your makeshift solar still. So it is best to leave it as long as possible to collect the most water you can. Perhaps building it early in the morning and collecting at twilight or late evening would be best. If you are in a desperate state of thirst, you can always use a small-diameter tube as a straw, placing one end in your container and routing it out of the hole under the plastic sheet.

Extension of Principle

The amount of water collected will depend on soil conditions. However, it may be possible to use this method to distill murky or contaminated water by pouring the unpotable water into the hole before covering it with the plastic.

Larger holes, and multiple holes, may be dug, limited only by the amout of clear plastic sheeting you have. Translucent sheeting should also work. Opaque sheeting may work, but likely not as quickly as most of the solar energy will be turned into heat in the sheet, instead of passing through into the soil.

If you wanted to get extreme in your water conservation, you could dig a hole big enough to live in, cover it with plastic, and live in the hole with your open container. The moisture in your breath would eventually be collected, as would water expelled in your urine and feces. Of course, you’d be living in a warm, humid hole with urine, feces, a cup of water, and no ventillation, so I wouldn’t recommend this. {wink}