Water collection is the most important task to do whether on the move or at base camp. If you ware collecting water from a moving water source such as creek, spring or river it is more ideal than collecting water from a stagnant pond or pool of water.
Dirty water needs to always go in a dirty water collection container. Never cross dirty water containers with clean water containers, they are not interchangeable. Dirty water containers could be a collapsible bucket or bag (even a dry bag works great). You could also use a plastic bucket, container with a lid for base camp or a stainless steel water bottle for individual use. Attempt to filter out sediment and debris with a cloth, bandana, screen or other material during collection.
Of course, if you are on the move, then a personal water filter would work just fine. You could use your dirty container for collection and then pour it into a filter bottle or use a Life Straw from the container.
For base camp currently we are using a Berkey filtration system. You should plan on getting a base camp filter capable of filtering enough water for your entire family each day. Berkey is by far the best in the business for this. We take our home filter system with us camping and it does a great job. We pour our debris filtered dirty water into the Berkey or our city water into the Berkey when at home.
A good rule of thumb is 1 gallon per person per day. The more filters you install in your Berkey, the faster the water is filtered. You can only survive 3 days without water. This is very very important and probably one of the biggest things that you should not skimp on.
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