(Bugout.news) In watching a recent episode of “The Walking Dead,” AMC network’s hit TV show about a zombie apocalyptic world, I noticed that several times characters in the show managed to find a creek to refill empty water bottles. The creeks depicted in the show were unusually cloudy, and they did not appear to lend themselves well to consumption.

The point is, water – not so much food, but definitely water – will be vital to your survival in a post-society collapse environment. And while you’ve likely heard this before, it needs to sink in because you cannot live long at all without water.

That said, drinking contaminated water can be equally deadly; you’ll get dysentery or worse, and it could literally kill you.

So, that said, the purpose of this post is to drive home the point that being able to find and keep potable water should be one of your top priorities, if not the top priority, for everything you do post-apocalypse will depend on your ability to obtain a viable, long-term water source.

The very best plan of action is to build and secure your own deep well. That way, you’re sure to have water for the long haul. But that won’t be an option for most people.

So the next best thing is to ensure you have a “line of defense,” so to speak, of tools you can use to make whatever water you find safe enough to drink.

First of all, understand that water won’t have to be “sterilized,” just disinfected, and the ideal way to do this is to simply boil it. Water doesn’t have to be boiled for long; just bring it to a boil for a few minutes and take it off the heat source. When it cools, it’s ready to drink.

What this means, then, is that you’ll need a redundant fire-starting capability as well – everything from disposable lighters to fire-starting kits like flint/steel and steel wool with 9 volt battery.

Another way to disinfect non-potable water is to use bleach, and there are specific ways to do that so as to avoid getting sick. But you should also know this: Only unscented bleach should be used; and bleach actually has a shelf life of about six months. A good alternative, then, is pool shock – essentially concentrated bleach powder used to clean pool water. Here is a good video showing how to use it to disinfect water for consumption. Hint: Do you have a supply of coffee filters with your water purification supplies?

Water filter straws and similar devices also work, of course, and they should definitely be in your multi-layered water purification preparations.

You can, and should, collect rainwater for consumption as well, but to be safe you should make sure you use one of the methods above to disinfect it before consumption.

Whether or not you believe climate change is actually occurring, it is hard to argue that parts of the country are certainly become drier, especially out west in states like Texas, Arizona, Nevada and California. Near-historic droughts are severely limiting available water sources, and no matter how vast the ocean, you can’t consume salt water.

So it is vitally important for you to develop a multi-layered, redundant system of sanitizing water because it will be your number one survival substance long-term. This can’t be stressed enough.

As noted by The Prepper Journal, you should take a three-tiered approach when preparing water you find in open sources for consumption:

— Prefiltering

— Sanitizing/chlorinating

— Filtering again

Check out that process here.

Bugout.news is part of the USA Features Media network of sites. For advertising opportunities, click here.