[Seventies'Neil]

I've only recently heard about these straws & was wondering if anyone has had experience.
Evidently they filter out 99%+ of all bacteria from the water
Heres a  link:
Survival straws 1

[kidsan]

Seventies, on May 9 2006, 07:41 AM, said:

I've only recently heard about these straws & was wondering if anyone has had experience.
Evidently they filter out 99%+ of all bacteria from the water
Heres a  link:
Survival straws 1

thanks neil, nice link, sounds almost too good to be true! I shall keep my ears open on this one...anything to reduce those piles of empty water bottles!

[sakurablue]

Yes, indeed. I saw them reported on a news channel about a year ago.  I'm a nutritionist with future hopes of establishing a clinic in Nepal.  Such straws would be a god-send in the short term.
Also, as mentioned, good for trekkers.

[HowieUK]

Sounds a great idea!

I'm going to order one, I had a look on another site that was selling them and they were $30 there so Neil's site is cheaper  

Howie

[StellaP]

Any body know if these will make Rajasthani tap water safe?
I'll have had jabs for cholera, typhoid, polio etc.

All the promo stuff seems to talk about survival situations in the wilds, just wondered if different protection is needed in tap water to a muddy pool.

Sorry if I'm being dumb. City Girl, 1st trip to India. Used bottled water in Egypt (in posh hotel with recycling facilities) but I'm keen to avoid creating lots of rubbish which I've heard can't easily be recycled in India.

Cheers

[karuna]

Hi Stella,

I see you're a Swansea lass- I'm in Cardiff! It'll be my first trip to India this Christmas!

Sorry, that was no answer to your question at all....

[Seventies'Neil]

StellaP, on May 11 2006, 12:00 PM, said:

Any body know if these will make Rajasthani tap water safe?
.

I can't remember when bottled water first actually made an appearance,,,,,,,,,,,,, But I would guess that I've spent years there before bottled water appeared compared to months with it. If you're staying in Rajasthan & not going too far of the track then running tap water shouldn't kill you, it must be better now than it was years ago. Water was water then, you held the glass up, if it wasn't too cloudy & not much was swimming in it, you drank it, Pushkar lake, street venders, wherever,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Same in Goa, Imagine being there now with no bottled water, having to pull it all up by hand from a well. People didn't get any more sick than nowadays, Perhaps we're over cautious now,,,,,,,,,,,,

[malkers]

Hi Stella

Personally if I were you on your first trip and being a little unsure I wouldn't take a chance on anything other than bottled water despite the obvious impact on the environment.

A dose of bad water can spoil your complete holiday and make you never want to return, I've been here 2 years and wouldn't touch the stuff from my tap although it goes through a very hygenic filtering process before it gets to my apartment.

I boil it for coffee and use it in cooking and thats it, of course if you have the facilty to boil water that has already been filtered yo can then cool it down and dispense back into already used bottles.

I went to a lovely café in Cochin last weekend where they encourage customers to buy water bottles from them that they have filled themselves with their own filtered and boiled water and they used already used bottles, everyone was doing it and it was also cheaper!

Lets hope more of that happens in India!

Cheers
Malc

Seventies, on May 12 2006, 10:52 AM, said:

People didn't get any more sick than nowadays, Perhaps we're over cautious now,,,,,,,,,,,,

I kind of agree with your post there Neil but I think that we are far too hygiene conscious in UK these days that our immune systems are almost non existent!

Funny thing is that now when I return to UK for a couple of weeks I get the dreaded belly as soon as I eat the food there     I must be turning full Indian!  

Malc

[Seventies'Neil]

malkers, on May 12 2006, 12:01 PM, said:

Hi Stella

Personally if I were you on your first trip and being a little unsure I wouldn't take a chance on anything other than bottled water despite the obvious impact on the environment.

.

I certainly agree with this too,
My other musings where from many moons ago when half the time I wouldn't have known if I was sick or not,,,,,,,,,,,,
These days my wife & I only drink bottled water, teeth brushing the works.

Stella brace yourself to be shocked by all the garbage which you can't avoid seeing. Even in Jaipur yards from all the tourist sites.

There should be a Rp2 deposit on all plastic bottles sold. Street kids could collect them, take them to a recycling plant & get Rp1 for each one, the other Rp1 could be used towrds recycling/environment programmes.

[justmakebelieve]

heres another option

steripen

No idea of how well these things work. I'd like to avoid using plastic, but am worried about how safe these portable devices make drinking water.

Edit: Just noticed price of this. katadyn bottle is another option

Edited by justmakebelieve, 12 May 2006 - 07:12 PM.

[StellaP]

Cheers Chaps, plenty to digest.

Neil, I think the rubbish is going to be one of the things that will bother me least (Swansea can be pretty scabby!!!lol). But I do think there'll be tears before bedtime for the first couple nights - I'm a bit soft when it comes to kids, animals & old codgers. But everywhere has beauty and ugliness, and when somewhere has as much beauty as India I suppose there has to be a fair bit of ugliness to balance it out.

The deposit on bottles thing is a great idea - how open is the Indian govt to petitions? Maybe we should start lobbying.

Karuna - 'fraid I'm a brummie masquerading as a Jack, can't quite drag myself away from the sea though!