Life cannot exist without water. It's true - I read it in a very serious book. On a more basic level, water, or specifically clean water, is essential to your health. Water management is an actual discipline in its own right, but most of what you need to know is common sense.

Simply put, you should only drink water that is safe to drink, by ensuring that is has been filtered, chemically treated, or boiled (5 minutes minimum), and has not been re-contaminated since then.

We achieve this by using the following kit:

• Drinking water jerrican - 15 litre clearish plastic with a tap (that leaks constantly). For filling personal water bottles. Then drinking.

• 2 x Dirty water jerricans - 20litre black plastic MOD pattern - new from Brownchurch. For filtering, showering in, washing up in, or boiling. But not drinking directly. Get into a routine of using them in the same order each time, and emptying each one completely as you go; that way you will always know how much water you have left.

• Brownchurch Water Filter/Shower - runs off 12v, and has changeable Doulton Ultracarb filters which get rid of pretty much everything possible. You can also use the pump to drive a shower (not filtered). I've customised mine to be two-thirds the size, with a power switch. This is used to fill the drinking water jerrican. Take enough filter elements for your needs plus an extra one in case of breakages. Also think about a pump repair kit - mine packed up in Congo.

• Micropur tablets - for when we don't use the filter. Each tablet does one litre, but you can get 20 litre tablets. Good for hiking away from the vehicle.

• Siphon with non-return valve - part of the Brownchurch shower, this hose consists of a rigid plastic pipe incorporating a bung, and two hoses incorporating the valve. Put the rigid pipe into a dirty water jerrican and the bung seals the top (but not very well). Suck on the hose end and water comes out. But the clever bit is that it can't drain backwards because of the valve, so once you've stopped for the night to camp you simply leave it stuck into a slot on a sand ladder (or anywhere high) and you can use it without having to re-siphon each time you want (dirty) water.

A lot of places have water that is fine to drink, and if you are sure of the supply there is no harm in filling the jerricans directly - but if you want to drink water from the dirty water jerricans you should first sterilise them using Milton Tablets (Boots again).

A lot of the bikers were using Katadyn manual pumps which are light and compact, and form part of a high-tech water system - if you are looking to save weight and space and don't mind the tedium of pumping for a while these might be worth looking at.

We actively attempt to keep our gut flora in trim by drinking the local water if it tastes OK, and the locals say it's fine. This may cause the odd bout of mild tummy trouble, but by getting your system used to a bit of bacteria you are better able to resist the really nasty stuff. After six months in West and Central Africa I've still not had to run to the toilet...

Apart from drinking, you'll also use water for:

• Washing: From the dirty water cans - you can bucket shower with a sponge with 5 litres, or shower with about 8 litres; the trick is to wet yourself all over, then turn off the water. Next lather your body, followed by your hair (do it the other way round and you'll get shampoo in your eyes), before rinsing off for as long as it takes.
• Brushing your teeth: You only really need water for rinsing the brush afterwards - I always use my water bottle, never dirty water.
• Cooking: As long as you are going to boil the water - for ten minutes to be safe - then dirty water is fine.
• Washing Dishes: For this you first need a small plastic washing bowl - which will have many other uses. The method will vary according to how clean your 'dirty' water actually is. The most economical method is to get the crud off everything using dirty water, and then rinse using dirty water that's not to bad; otherwise you can add a Milton Tablet to the rinsing bowl.
• Washing clothes: I usually pay somebody to do this for me - just ask anybody you see washing clothes, and negotiate a price (usually £1-£1.50). Make sure you agree whether soap power is included or not, and count everything before you start to make sure you get it all back. Other more original methods include filling a large (preferably black) dry bag (from any camping shop) with water, soap powder and laundry, and strap it to the roof for a day's driving. The vibration does a great job of agitating the wash, and the only problem we had was that it got too hot and colours tended to run.

Finding Water

It's good practice to try to carry as much water as you have capacity for when you are in the more arid countries, but this becomes less important where there is more surface water available. You'll get water from the following sources (in order of preference):

• In the larger cities, and in most places in the more developed countries you will probably find drinkable tap water, and taps make life so easy...
• In the countryside where you are away from municipal supplies most water come from wells with pumps. Ask permission before using a pump - wheel pumps are the easiest to use followed by hand, then foot pumps. You will often get help with drawing water, and may also be invited to the head of any queue - we give empty water bottles (bidons) as a thank you for this. Filling from well was almost always a great way to meet the local villagers.
• In more rural areas open wells are the only option - take local advice on which are drinkable, as some are only used for livestock. You will also need to borrow a bucket and rope. In desert regions you will often be using brackish water as the only option.
• River and lake water should again be taken on local advice only - don't take the danger from crocodiles or hippos for granted, and remember that this is a last option as this water will probably contain silt (rivers) or micro organisms (lakes) - wither way your filter will be earning its money. If the filter element gets clogged up (very slow water throughput) you can remove it and scrub it with a stiff brush.
• If you want to get into survival mode there are lots of other sources of water in the wild; the internet is full of all sorts of survivalist sites, some of which are actually useful resources.

One piece of kit that we didn't take but would have helped, especially at pumps, would be a large funnel and a short length of large diameter plastic hose.

If you have the time and resources you can make life much simpler by getting rid of the jerricans and using a custom made plastic (polyethyline) tank which you can permanently plumb in to a filter unit.

The tank should be fitted as low as possible, and preferably between the two axles - the Camel has an almost ideal space for this at the bottom of the load bay, which is separated from the rest of the boot by a heavy duty shelf.

You will need a hose, or another water container to fill this, but it would be less hard work than removing the two dirty water jerricans each time you want to fill up, and there are obvious advantages to having the filter set up all the time for drinking water on demand.

The only disadvantage that I can see is that you cannot transport the water separately (say in case of a breakdown n the desert, where you are close enough to hike to a well). But as I carry a collapsible 15 litre bidon (plastic water carrier) this, or the dry bag, could be used instead.