Speaking of water wells. When I was a kid, “they” decided there were too many not so good eating fish in the river so “they” spent who knows how many tax dollars to poison the not so good fish. I still remember watching the helicopters dumping whatever chemical it was. Well, duuuuuh, both the good and not so good fish ALL died. People were swarming around grabbing the fish as they drifted to the top of the water and taking them home to eat.... Crazy. You get one guess about the water wells near the river. My family was worried about our well so went a friend’s well that was deeper than ours to get water. Of course, here’s another duuuuuuuh. The poison had spread into the ground water and depth doesn’t mean anything so we all got sicker than dogs. Everyone was sick so no one could help us and we didn’t have any water to drink to help flush the poison out. Thank goodness for the stash of tp and home canned chili. It was years before I could stomach chili again but I’m getting a bit nauseated just thinking about it. Sure, the EPA would go bonkers over such practices these days but I don’t put it past some in our current government or the terrorist groups they pander to to pull carp like this.
Now you can rig up almost any pot with a lid to distill the water into a cup. Also there is the solar pit method which involves a pit, container, plastic sheet, and rock.
I have actually been looking recently at some distillation apparatus that could be used to make ethanol, but wondering if it could also be used to distill water? Water is still at the top of my long term prep list, and I haven't yet decided on the best solution. The really small still wasn't that expensive. Held 7 gallons of mash and could produce 1 gallon of ethanol per batch. Feds are picky about letting anyone do this though.
We used to distill stuff in Chemistry lab all the time, but I don't remember any of it now, it was too long ago.LOL.
Even in the drought last summer, our central air pulled 5 to 10 gallons of water per day from the air, which we used in the garden. That would provide enough drinkig water for my entire family with some left over though.
Gives me the idea to look at dehumidifiers since it is not likely that central air would be available in a major long term grid down situation. We have already decided to get an inexpensive solar powered inverter to recharge batteries etc, especially if we happen to camp out on our property. However, maybe it would also run a dehumidifier in case we needed to manufacture our own water. Mmmmh. Food for thought? I am thinking it could work. Going to have to look into it a little more.