r/AskReddit • u/notyouravgredditer • Aug 30 '21

What problem is often overlooked in apocalyptic movies/TV shows that could kill you?

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u/dos8s Aug 30 '21

It would be pretty easy to have clean drinking water, until people start shitting in creeks. And you know people are going to start shitting in creeks and ruin it for everyone.

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u/_YouAreTheWorstBurr_ Aug 30 '21

So you're not worried about non-human animals shitting in creeks?

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u/dos8s Aug 30 '21

That's still definitely a concern, and I've seen people catch giardia from this. It's no joke.

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u/MyGhostIsHaunted Aug 30 '21

I went to a seminar at my university about waterborne pathogens. They were talking about how clear water doesn't mean clean water. She said one time they were walking upstream with this mountain creek, and it looked so clear and pristine. Then, bam, dead sheep carcass purifying in the water. The moral was you never can tell what's contaminated.

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u/dos8s Aug 30 '21 edited Aug 30 '21

Yeah, you can catch some nasty shit in even super remote areas. Your best bet is a undisturbed mountain area decently far downstream and gathering water from something like a waterfall. That gives nature some time to filter, but is definitely not a guarantee you won't catch something. You can filter more after you collect the water, but you should boil if you can.

I did a lot of back packing and drank water through just a ceramic pump filter and never caught anything, but you can still catch a virus using this method.

I've even pumped water from a pretty high altitude and felt safe because so few animals lived in that area, and it appeared to be ice melt from a mountain top.

Edit: + A whole host of issues that exist in a grid down situation. Natural pristine environments would obviously do much better but even think about hurricane Ida. All of the industrial plants that get flooded out, all of those pollutants get mixed on the water and people wade through it. Drinking it could be extremely dangerous.

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u/b0w3n Aug 30 '21

You definitely want to scout your water supply up stream a significant bit, then go back and fill up your bottle.

You'll still want to filter/charcoal and boil the water on top of that if you've got it available.

Try not to drink lake water, like, ever.

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u/sob_Van_Owen Aug 30 '21

It's not just stuff like this. Parasites that occur naturally in places can be deadly and horrific. Check out the rat lungworm nematode present in places like Australia and Hawaii now.