There are several different ways to do this, but this is one way I was taught to do it at, of all places, a Girl Guides Camp!

It does work - we built several, and they did indeed produce distilled water.

You need:

A sheet of plastic or tarpaulin (must be water-proof), approx. 5 ft by 5ft, or bigger;

Something to catch your water, such as a cup, bottle or (small) bucket;

A stone, large pebble size;



Something to dig with, such as a spade or shovel, or anything in an emergency, such as a big stick or sharp stone or even a knife.



Firstly, dig a hole, about 3 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet deep. Choose the place which gets the most sun per day in the immediate area. You get more water if the soil at the bottom of your hole is damp.

Put your cup / empty tin can / other water catcher at the bottom and centre of your hole.



Put any dirty or doubtful water at the bottom of your hole, so it is thoroughly damp. You can also use seawater. If you don't have any seawater or dirty water, put juicy green plants there, or urine (which will produce clean, distilled water only, don't worry....)

Put the plastic over the hole you've dug, and make sure it's sagging a bit in the middle, over your water catcher.

The use stones, wood and the soil you dug out of your hole to anchor the plastic to the ground. Try to make it sealed, so water vapour doesn't escape around the edges of your plastic sheet.

Lastly, put the stone on the secured plastic, directly over the water catcher.

The still works by causing the damp, dirty water, seawater, urine or succulent plants to produce water vapour. This is prevented from escaping the hole by the plastic.



The stone on the plastic encourages the water vapour to condense, and drop into your water catcher.