We keep enough stored water to get us through about 3 weeks. Longer than that, we will be having to find a source. I have been thinking about how to make a homemade filter that we could employ to filter about 10 gallons a day for an extended period of time. There is a small river about 1/2 mile from home but the water is not clean; Giardia and Cryptosporidium abound and I assume that there is probably a good deal of e coli present. I would easily get to the river and bring back up to 40 gallons of water at a time.

The following is my general idea:

I would have a 5 gallon bucket filled with sand atop another 5 gallon bucket filled with crushed charcoal. It would NOT be charcoal that was the "match Light" kind. At the very top would be a small screen to filter out larger items like bugs, leaves, etc. A small tap at the bottom.

After water went through this filter it would be treated with chlorine bleach.

Your thoughts on this contraption?