Apart from some initial tips, the techniques I am going to present in this article concern emergency situations, which generally correspond to real situations of survival. In such situations, the first thing to do is to keep a cool head (if so, it seems obvious but I doubt that many of us are not just panicking in such situations … And getting ready also serves this purpose: To be convinced, in the depths of oneself, that we know what to do, and that we can get out of it calmly, easier said than done …). In short, keep a cool head, and focus on his priorities: drink, eat, breathe, stay warm, protect himself.
A man (where a woman, as a survivalist rightly pointed out to me on a forum!) Can survive for 3 minutes without breathing , 3 days without drinking and 3 weeks without eating . As in the vast majority of cases you are not likely to run out of air (without bad wordplay), one of your priorities must therefore be to have water. And 3 days is short (especially after 3 days without drinking believe me you will not be in a position to do much!). That’s why I strongly recommend that you do not wait to stop having water to worry about finding again !!
In terms of quantities (I speak here of survival, no comfort obviously), 1 liter of water can allow you to live 4 days if you do not lose too much water (limited activity, moderate temperatures …). In case of extreme urgency, you can keep with 10cL per day for 3 days , drinking 5 cl around noon and 5 cl before going to bed every day. Beyond the third day, you will have to find more water.
All these figures are worth it if you do not lose too much water. But then, how not to lose too much water?
- Avoid getting hot : stay in the shade as much as possible, and if it’s hot do not hesitate to stay in a wet and cool area at the hottest hours of the day. In temperate zones you should always be able to find shadows not too far from you: prefer these natural shadows to that of a canvas, which protects less well from the sun
- Avoid exercise . If you have to move forward for emergency reasons, prefer to walk for a long time, and try as much as possible to walk at night and at cool hours of the day. Remember that you can hold 3 weeks without eating: better to be hungry than to exhaust your water trying to feed. In the case of real water shortage, this must remain your only goal until it is settled.
- Do not smoke or drink alcohol . Avoid eating too much: digestion consumes a lot of water, especially fatty foods. Sweet foods will accentuate your sensation of thirst.
- Try to speak as little as possible, and breathe through the nose rather than through the mouth to avoid drying the mouth.
- In general you can not do much, but avoid getting sick: diarrhea and vomiting will cause you to lose a lot of water. Obviously, it is rarely on purpose to fall ill, however this advice may have its place here because it means that even in extreme situations, you should not drink anything … This could make the situation worse.
Let us now turn to the more active aspect: the search for water.
1) find a water supply
- First of all, in a not too bad situation, you can always find water in a village: either in a house (abandoned), or in the cemetery: there is always a water point in the cemetery.
- Water, when it falls on the ground has 2 options: either it enters the earth, or it flows. If you are looking for water, go to the bottom of the valleys ( always down, this is usually where you are most likely to find streams.) Look for water stuck in A crevasse, a rock, etc. Attention however, if it has not rained for a long time this water is surely not drinkable.
- If you are at the seaside, do not hesitate to dilute sea water to increase your water supply! Do not drink pure sea water however, you could die … dehydrated by salt! I personally advise you to put at least 80% fresh water (below 50% it is dangerous)
Be careful, if you find a body of water or even a puddle around which or nothing grows, it is bad sign and you should not drink.
2) Recover water by other means.
If the water is not available directly (you can not find water, river or lake), it will be necessary to recover it by yourself. To do this, you have several options:
- Recover the rain : stretch a large tarpaulin, by raising the edges, in order to collect the rain water that falls there.
- If you see dwellings, use the gutters by cutting them and putting a container underneath. This will allow you to recover a lot of water at the first rain!
- You can also recover water (from rain or dew) that has settled on vegetation by passing clothes that can mop up some of it, then squeezing it to collect the water. For example, hang the laundry around your legs and run in high vegetation.
- Finally, the last way to recover the water is to use condensation : tighten a tarp over a hole, tilting it towards the middle with a stone, and put a container underneath it Stone: with heat, the water should condense on the tarpaulin and flow to your container.
I will finish this article on 2 tips to relativize what is generally said. First of all, if it is true that one can drink his urine twice without dying, it is really very bad (and not that to the taste!). Do it only in case of extreme urgency (and even there, try at least to cut it). As for salt, it is a factor of dehydration as anyone who has already eaten a dish too salty realized the following night … However, salt also has a role of water retention, So try to eat a little while still in a lack of water. At sea, use sea water (very diluted). The blood of animals also contains many minerals.
So, I’m sure I did not talk about everything, the subject is so vast … If you have comments or comments, do not hesitate! Thank you for your support, your comments and your messages!
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Jen.