DIY skill of the day: water, water, water

When one looks at the basics of life, on the top of that list is in most cases water. this is basic. without it we die, rather straight forward. Another basic place to start is that civilization uses massive amounts of fresh water for everything from watering lawns, to manufacturing computers. Since civilizations appitite for water keeps growing, we are now entering into a water scarcity senario which could very likely be an agent in collapse in a similar manner as other peaking resorces. How we get food and what that food consists of is the defining factor in what human social organization looks like (1). In a simmilar way, how and where we get fresh water tends to define where we live and in which areas we mirgate threw. Most people today only in effect know to get water fom a pipe, or at least in the end only trust water from a pipe, but in reality this is just a complex, machanistic, and midiated way of doing the same thing as is done in primitive ways.
Where?: The most ideal is a spring. Follow a stream to its highest evelation sorce and there will be a spring. You can judge the relative cleaness of it by looking at the snad and sediments it has left on the floor of the stream at its sorce. If your real lucky there is a clean lake or pond around. Another method is if you follow the land it its lowest point, you will probably find some sort of body of water. Walk at least 50 feet away, the lowver the gradient of elevation the better, and dig a hole. This should fill with water. If it looks to murkey, scoop out whats there and let it fill again. This is using the soil to filter your water. You can do this by the edge of the ocean too, same rules apply. If you are in a more civilized enviornment, stealing water from the outside fausetts of houses and buisnesses is easy. In the desert in a survival situation water can be found in many cactai, this is however not the most enjoyable, or consistant, way to get water on a regular basis. Also, raw fish is a good sorce of both food and water. Note: much of our world is now filled with industrial toxins, bear this in mind.
How?: Once you've fond your water and it is not nessisarily good to drink , or you just want to be sure, then the next surest thing is to filter it. To construct a filter first get a hollow tube (a log or whatever you can get) and pack well into the middle of it charcoal (NOT ash), followed by a layer of sand, then a layer of leaves , small rocks , or other such things that will hold the sand in and will provide some minor filtration. Then add a rock or something else to hold it all together. Do this until it is clear. A solar still is easily contructed by digging a hoel in the ground, streaching a tarp over it that is well sealed at the edges. Then place a small rock in the middle on the top and have a collection container on the bottom . This will get you some fresh water, but this is more of a survival thing and probably not the best for everyday use. Then there is boiling it, allways surefire.