If people cannot boil for 5 minutes:
From a concerned Woodstock Early Bird:
World Health Organization endorsed:
SODIS – Safe drinking water in 6 hours
Solar water disinfection – the SODIS method – is a simple procedure to disinfect drinking water. Contaminated water is filled in a transparent PET-bottle or glass bottle and exposed to the sun for 6 hours. During this time, the UV-radiation of the sun kills diarrhoea generating pathogens. The SODIS-method helps to prevent diarrhoea and thereby is saving lives of people. This is urgently necessary as still more than 4000 children die every day from the consequences of diarrhoea.
SODIS (abbreviation of Solar Water Disinfection) is an initiative of Eawag. We facilitate the dissemination of the SODIS-method in developing countries. Thereby people in the south get access to safe drinking water and can improve their health in the long term.
Note: Giardia cysts must be exposed to direct sunlight for at least 6 hours and cryptosporidia cysts must be exposed to direct sunlight for at least 10 hours
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 
Posted by Peter Rousmaniere on August 30, 2011 at 14:03
Julia,
Can you give us updates on Town and Water Company plans for restoration of water?
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Posted by Julia Carlisle on August 30, 2011 at 14:12
Peter, Unfortunately there is nothing to report other than what has been posted this morning. We are simply in a bad situation and have to wait and make provisions as best we can to continue possibly for several more days…Water is available in town and can be delivered to you by volunteers if needed. Woodstock Early Bird will definitely report to you if there is ANYTHING that is different from the current situation.
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Posted by James D. Lawlor on August 30, 2011 at 15:53
In a pinch, you can purify water with plain chlorine bleach. Add 8 drops per gallon of clear water; double that if it’s cloudy. Mix well, cap and wait 30 minutes. Take a sniff. It should smell slightly bleachy. If not add two more drops and wait a few more minutes. You can get rid of the bleach odor by leaving the jug open to the air.
Hang in there. Your friends to the south are thinking of you..
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Posted by Cary Kilner on August 30, 2011 at 16:31
A couple of drops of tincture of iodine works as well and doesn’t taste as bad.
I’m a chemist, and glass and PET are opaque to UV light. So for this system to work to kill the cysts, I believe you need to expose the water open from the top to direct sunlight without traveling through glass or plastic.
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