How to Turn Salt Water into Fresh Water

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

This is the dilemma facing those who run out of water while close to a saltwater ocean, sea or bay.

Never, and I mean never, drink saltwater to quench your thirst. Drinking saltwater will dehydrate you more as your body attempts to process the salt.

So what can you do?

There is a way to remove the salt from the water, but it's going to take some work.

Gather salt water into a container and build a fire. Place the container of water over the fire and bring it to a boil. Hold a cloth (a t-shirt will work in a pinch) over the container. As the water begins to evaporate in the form of steam, the cloth will soak the steam up. The cloth will be full of fresh water. Squeeze it out into another container.

The water obtained using this method will be fresh and safe to drink. If you have firewood and a readily available source of salt water, you can get as much water as you need using this method.

If for some reason you can't build a fire, you can do the same thing using the heat of the sun and evaporation.

Dig a small hole and place a tarp or sheet of plastic in the hole. Put a container full of salt water in hole on top of the tarp. Place another sheet of plastic over the hole so that it's raised in the center and any condensation that occurs will run down the sheet of plastic and get trapped in the hole. It shouldn't run down the plastic and drip back into the original container.

As the water evaporates, it will condense on the top sheet of plastic and get trapped in the tarp in the hole. Collect the water a few times a day and add more water to the container.

The bigger the container, the better. More surface area exposed to the air equates to more water evaporating.