MSR Waterworks

[Superchick]

Good enough to clean nepali water????

[yakshaver]

Agree with Escher. No need to carry filters with you. Lodges at least in Annapurna sell you boiled water, which I used on my last trek without ill effects. Otherwise there are lots of pills and tablets you can buy in Thamel and Pokhara and add you your water if you want to feel absolutely safe... Like the ones escher describes or even the Iodine pills and neutralizer set which come in two very little botlese and will last you for at least a three week trek.
I find that drinking a lot of hot tea and hot lemonade from the lodges (as well as the rum, vodka and coke largely available for sale) may also reduces the need for drinking so much water.

Cheers

[Monique]

A tip: I got my Sigg bottle filled up with boiling water before going to bed , put it inside a sock, used it as a hot water bottle and kept it to drink the following day . No need for a filter as you can obtain boiled or boiling water very easily . We trekked for 20 days and although we had taken a filter, iodine and tablets we never needed to use them .

[Chris]

Just wondering why Escher has said NOT the bottled water?

[Sharon]

Not the bottled water for two reasons. One is the pollution of the empty plastic bottles in an environment without the capacity to recycle and the other is that I observed an employee in a restaurant in Besishar filling the bottles out back and screwing lids back on. Boiled lodge water is safe and more environmentally friendly than risky plastic. In Kathmandu I sometimes buy it if I am stuck but I can see the seal there.

[yakshaver]

In addition with what Sharon says (totally agree, Sharon), there is also the fact that in the Annapurna Conservation area plastic bottled beverages (water included) are not allowed to be sold. That is exactly because of environmental concernes. So you can buy glass bottles and aluminium cannes of beer, sprite, coke etc, but not plastic bottles. Aluminium and glass is recycled, as there is money to be made in Nepal for returning it. I wish they introduced this rule everywhere else, Khumbu included.

[Chris]

Yakshaver, your post came as I was writing the one above. I did not know bottles and cans were recycled in Ktm, thanks for clarifying.

[Escher]

Yes you are right. Have you used it before? When I used mine I got fed up with the effort of having to filter my water all the time (especially at altitude). My filter, however, also added a small amount of iodine so it killed viruses too. It takes much less effort to treat it and if you are tea house trekking or even camping on the main trails (Khumbu, Annapurna, Langtang) there are no particulates in the water sources as they are mainly standpipes and kitchen taps.

You save on fuel/wood if you treat OR use a filter and as you should be drinking four of five litres a day (personally I drink more) at altitude then you are going to be doing a lot of filtering. I prefer to sit down and rest when taking a break and not spend 5-10 minutes having to filter my water.

[Andrees]

I often have my katadin filter with me and i like it very much. It is completely safe for removing amibs and bacteria, which can really be nasty.
The use of plastic bottles in trekking areas really spoils the enviroment and can be pretty expensive to ( still the larger amount of the money goes to porters or mule caravaners, so you are helping nepali people).
In the annapurna area one can get purified water several villages and it is suposed to be OK.
i have seen on different places, hao empty bottles where refilled with normal water, and often the seal is not really broken, warming it up with a lighter and it looks like new.
Well that is a pretty fast way of making money. 8 bottels have a wholesale value of a porters day income!
so please, if you use botteld water always crunch the empy bottle to avoid this.
With my filter I just fill up my waterbottle at the first morning break and a second time in the afternoon.
Good luck and pleasure
Andrées

[Greenbottle]

There were a lot of good points raised here which the originator no doubt followed with wonder. I simply bought plastic bottles of water and threw the empty ones by the side of the track. On the return journey I noticed that my rubbish was mostly gone...see it works!

[yakshaver]

rdt, you can find a set of little brown bottles with iodine compound and neutralizer (usually vitamin C) which is quite soluble in water and has the right concentration: one pill for one litre if the water is looking clear. Two pills if it looks dirty. Simple. Ten minutes later you can drink it.

However I come to what I wrote before: people worry to much. And spend unwarranted amount of money on expensive filters, pills etc. This is paranoia as far as the Everest region, Annapurna and Langtang are concerned. Yes, put a pill in, if it makes you feel beter. But these days you can buy boiled water from the lodges (much safer than any filtered water) and complement that by drinking the hot drinks like tea, hot lemonade, as well as crap stuff like coke, fanta, beer etc. These are available at every lodge. No need to worry so much. The filter is definitely going overboard. Should you go on a remote trek, by all means, take pills, take filter etc.