Vogel, author of the new book “A Field Guide to Drinking Water,” (2019, The Experiment Publishing), is a world-renowned survival expert and has spent years traveling the remotest regions on Earth accumulating extensive experience and putting his survival skills to the test in the process. He resides in Germany.

GP: How did you glean information about drinking water issues and crisis in the United States, such as Saint-Gobain in Merrimack, New Hampshire? [Editor’s note: as of Oct. 20, Saint-Gobain released a statement, saying, “the company often sets up what it calls community advisory groups with residents and government officials near its major facilities. Saint-Gobain says it’ll reach out to the town of Merrimack to start the process. They say the group could be a forum to address protesters’ other concerns.”

JV: We were looking for counterparts with the same problems that we are facing in Europe and researched poor drinking water in communities such as the one in Merrimack, New Hampshire. There were also some scientific papers that talked about the amount of PFAS chemical contamination in nearby unregulated water wells. The local water is not very controlled.

GP: What compelled you to look at water here?

JV: I’ve done expedition travel all over the world, to the Australian outback, Africa, Central and Southern Europe, and South America but I hadn’t really studied the water in the U.S. When I travel, I have a small trailer that I bring, it’s a walking trailer and I must purify my own water and carry it with me. I have studied endlessly on how to find water and then how to treat it so it is drinkable and there is little cause for concern for acute illness.

GP: Did you do a lot of research on Saint-Gobain?

JV: Yes. They’re forcing the community to drink undertreated water. It was a little funny because most chemicals in the water can be removed through reverse osmosis or even by filtration. I was astonished that the company [Saint-Gobain] was conducting itself quite differently than companies I have come across in Europe.

GP: Where did you find the worst water in the U.S.?

JV: Often, I found it near landfills. Globally, however, the biggest concern is waste-water treatment facilities. Human sewage that flows into fresh-water rivers where people are drinking the water that has not been treated. Chemical factories remain a huge problem.

GP: How do you deal with “raw water?”

JV: “Raw water” is found in the countryside, and it’s rarely sterile or totally toxic. Usually its quality it somewhere in the middle. The task is to find the type and degree of pollution. Once you establish that, you can begin the specific purification process. You need to know if the water has been contaminated by significant amounts of agricultural or industrial wastewater.

GP: In the book, you discuss a person’s water requirements.

JV: Yes, and to give a blanket figure for a person’s water requirement is obviously not possible. Every organism apportions its water reserves slightly differently. Besides, external circumstances strongly influence the body’s needs. Activity, age, gender, acclimatization, temperature, altitude and humidity all play a role. A good rule of thumb is basic amount + activity amount + temperature amount + altitude amount = daily water requirement. I break it down in the book.

GP: How do you make water safe to drink?

JV: It’s simple and then again, it’s not. You need to understand what type of pollutants can occur in raw water and how to recognize them. Water treatment falls into these categories: preparation, disinfection, purification and preservation.

GP: I think I would just bring a canteen.

JV: (Laughs) And when your canteen is empty, then what will you do?