Ragnar Benson - Ragnar's Urban Survival - A Hard-Times Guide to Staying Alive in the City

Some survivors I stayed with in northern Kenya rigged a large aquarium-type bubbler to aerate and purify their water. Without bleach it didn't work well. Even with bleach, it is doubtful whether most city survivors could take advantage of this trick. When I lived in Africa, I regularly dreamed of standing in a fresh, flowing mountain stream drinking snowmelt water in cupped hands. After a few weeks of city survival, thoughts of clean, freshsmelling, cool, untreated water will be in the category of vague dreams of a past life.

One ounce per gallon is a lot less bleach than most publications on the subject recommend. But conservation of scarce supplies is a primary goal here, and taking the time to let water settle is better than using higher quantities of bleach.

If anyone, especially the very young or elderly, acquires a dose of diarrhea, up the bleach a bit. Several M.D. types in our survival culture reckon that most Americans consume unrealistically pure foods and water. As a result, our guts are not immunized against real-world bacterial conditions. Foreign survivors who have built up an immunity have the edge on us in this instance. Don't forget that under the best of circumstances, city survivors are going to drink lots of brown and green water. Its a given.

WELLS

For a brief time in World War I Germany, my father hauled his water from an obscure shallow well. The well was reasonably close as well as being sheltered from view Because the water was drawn from a depth of only about 20 feet, it probably contained contaminants and growies. At least these weren't large, lumpy green and brown ones, and the family all lived through it. Then somebody stole the handpump. His mother traded for another. Somebody stole that one, too. The pump should have been taken off between uses, but it was too late. Now it was a long hike to the river.

I don't know of a community well left in any large city anywhere in the world. In some places where there are larger, open spaces occupied by gardens, parks, backyards, or even median strips in roadways, it might be possible to drill, drive, or auger in private, shallow wells. When these are put in place, they usually provide sufficient water for a family I recently saw one not too far from the center of London. And a survivor from Atlanta wrote that he had produced a shallow well in his backyard behind a threestory apartment complex! These things do occur, but of course won't unless survivors look for opportunities to put them in place before an emergency

Some survivors with backyards can install their own shallow wells and old-fashioned hand pumps.

Controls and tanks for a do-it-yourself water system.

When much younger I used a gasoline engine power head that slowly turned a 2.5-inch auger shaft to drill shallow wells. It was OK technology for wells no deeper than 25 feet where the underlying material was sandy and rock free. How times have changed! Everything is more sophisticated, expensive, and certain. Deeprock Manufacturing, 2200 Anderson Road, Opelika, AL 36801, sells a small two- or three-man well-drilling outfit, complete with mud pump (to lubricate and flush out the hole) that will go down 200 feet! Other than those living in the and West, everyone is assured of water using one of these outfits. The cost is about $3,000 for their smallest model, #2000, which will even drill through solid rock. It takes two people about a day to drill their own private well. Frequently these rigs are available from rental shops. In areas where they are commonly used, a good resale market exists.

All well bores must be cased. For ease of operation and speed, use the smallest drill or auger possible that will also produce an adequate sized well hole. Bore a hole about 1 1/2 to 2 inches larger than the well casing. The casing can be plastic if it will slip straight down easily. When additional pounding is required to set the casing, steel is a must. Plastic or steel, a pointed brass well screen is installed on the bottom end of all well casings. Install a well of a size on the very low end of what is common in your area-usually a 1.25-inch one.

Old-fashioned drill augers we used long ago did not have reverse. We quickly learned not to get into this business without a large, rugged set of pipe wrenches with which to back the auger out if stuck by a rock.

Standard power heads are available to rent just about anyplace in the United States. Contractors use them with 12-inch augers to dig postholes. With careful planning, it is possible to purchase 20 feet of 2-inch auger shaft that fits on these standard contractor-type power heads, allowing insertion of a standard 1.25-inch well casing.

How do you tell whether there is water at the bottom of the hole? Pour water into the hollow well pipe. If it rapidly flows away through the sand and gravel screen, there is water below.

Another detail that makes life easier for do-it-yourself well developers: Three or four 7- or 8-foot well-casing sections with appropriate connections are easier to place than trying to insert a single 20-foot length of pipe.

It ain't easy, but shallow wells can also be driven down into sandy, rock-free ground by hand. The presence of tough clay or any coarse gravel or rock precludes using the following method, which is already so much work that I am reluctant to mention it.

The tools required are a 10-pound (or larger) steel maul, two 36-inch steel pipe wrenches, a 5-gallon water bucket, and some very sturdy boxes, logs, or scaffolds to build up a place to work from. Start with three 6-foot lengths of heavy, steel 1.25-inch well pipe. Special heavy-duty drive couplings needed to connect the pipe sections and a special drive cap to protect pipe threads while whacking away at the pipe end are also required. You will also need a special, heavy-duty well point screen made for this type of mauling. These fittings are not common, but all large plumbing shops I know of can order them. If not, try Lehman's Hardware and Appliances, Inc., Box 41, Kidron, OH 44636. Their stuff is a bit price) but is of very good quality and fully guaranteed. Lehman's sells predominantly to the Amish community and are very nice folks indeed to work with. I recommend paying up promptly, gladly, and without a whimper, no matter what the price.

Deploying three or fcur stout men, take turns pounding the point and pipe down into the ground. Two things make this marginally easier. Using the two pipe wrenches and a section of pipe over the handle, keep rotating the well pipe and point as it goes down. Keeping the pipe full of water is messy when it is hit, but will marginally lubricate the point as it goes down.

The maximum depth is 20 to 25 feet. Never assume that this will be easy, but in areas where surface water rises to within 20 feet of the ground and where there is no gravel or rock, it works like a champ. No expensive equipment is needed, there's not much mess or fuss, and it can usually be undertaken in an afternoon. It's all we had when I was a kid. Many wells of this type were driven right in our friends' backyards in the middle of town.

Water can, theoretically, be pumped by hand from as deep as 200 feet using special handpumps. These and more practical shallow-well pitcher-and-stand pumps are available from Lehman's Hardware.

What can you do if you have the opportunity to rope-haul fresh drinking water up from a steep canyon or perhaps a very deep abandoned well? Climbing down to the water may be impossible, so what to do?

Lehman's sells a special 2-gallon bucket with a unique valve that opens when it hits the water, closing again automatically when the bucket is withdrawn. A rope the length of the drop is required. It's lots of work using this method, but it may be the only game in town when the water cannot be otherwise reached.