Originally Posted by London Times, 22 July 2004
Now American Soldiers Can Safely Drink Their Own Urine (By Nicholas Wapshott, in New York)
AMERICAN special forces in Afghanistan and Iraq have been issued with a revolutionary plastic pouch which filters contaminated water, even urine, so that it becomes pure and drinkable.
A similar bag to purify salt water is being developed for the US Navy and will eventually become standard equipment in every lifeboat.
The HydroPack, tested for the past two years by US special forces and Rangers, provides a ready supply of clean water to drink or mix with dried chicken and rice, drastically reducing the weight each soldier has to carry.
"I can literally take water from a septic tank or a toilet, place it in the bag, and about two hours later have one litre of best quality water, complete with electrolytes and sugar," said Gerald Darsch, director of the US Defence Department's Combat Feeding Directorate (CFD), based at the US Army Soldier Systems Centre in Natick, Massachusetts.
"How about a drink?" asked Mr Darsch, holding up a HydroPack pouch full of dirty water, sticks and floating debris. "It's pond scum. I just collected it myself."
Soldiers testing the HydroPack found they could reduce the weight of their daily supply of meals, previously weighing 3.5kg (7.7lb), to just 400g (13oz).
"Anything that can cut that weight down is literally a lifesaver," Mr Darsch said. "Water weighs a ton and these guys are already carrying almost 100lb on their backs."
The plastic bag filters 99.9 per cent of microbes and toxic chemicals from the dirty water. Although it can be used to treat urine over the short term, soldiers could suffer from urea poisoning if urine was their only source of water for extended periods.
"The bag works by forward osmosis," Andre Senecal, of the CFD, told The Times. "We put salts, sugars and some amino acids on one side of a membrane and contaminated water on the other. After a while the water starts seeping through.
"Depending on the soldier's motion and the temperature, which promotes the reaction, it takes from an hour to four hours to produce a litre of clean water."
The bags, made by Hydration Technology of Albany, Oregon, have been specially adapted for the military to make them easier to use.
"We have redesigned the bag, replacing the stopper at the top, such as the one found in an air mattress, with a zipper so that a soldier can fill it quickly, pop it in his rucksack and be on his way," Dr Senecal said.
