Drinking Water on the EBC Trail

Drinking water is always a major concern on any trek be it in any part of the world. Everyday one ordinary person needs about 3 to 3.5 liters of liquid which needs to be apt and deliberate combination of water and liquids that can supply adequate electrolytes. While finalizing for the trek, I was discussing this matter with close friends who are also experienced hikers.  

My friend SK said, that being Indians we can drink the water they serve and we need not buy bottled water. I personally buy bottled water very rarely. For most of my treks, I have been using Lifestraw bottle since a decade. The one that I have is currently about a year old and is used for barely 100 liters. I carried this bottle but didn't use. 

Amruta got a new filter bottle from Tata Swatch. She ordered that on Amazon and it took weeks to arrive just timely before we left for trek. She too didn't use it. Gauri picked up some water purification tablets at the market in Kathmandu but she also didn't use it.  

On the eve of first day of trek, we bought some 6 bottles of water from Thamel Market in Kathmandu. We used the kettle in our hotel to heat it up for us to carry hot water in our flasks. However, between Lukla to Ghat and the time that we spent at Ghat we barely needed hot water. 

On the trail, we saw that bottled water was available throughout till Gorakshep. We saw many yaks, mules and porters carrying bottles all the way up. I am pretty sure the empty bottles don't return. They either go in landfill or in crevasses of Khumbu Glacier or go down with the flow of Dudhkoshi river. 

When we crossed Dudhkoshi near Phakding, I asked Ngima if they use water from Dudhkoshi. He instantly replied they don't. Dudhkoshi mainly takes down all the sewage from higher settlements. It was absolutely disappointing to know that water was being contaminated right near the origin. 

Although, some prominent mountaineers are putting in all sorts of efforts to clean the valley, they're not enough! They're not enough because the number of people making the place dirty is far more than the ones cleaning it!! 

Anyway, we chose to buy hot water and fill our reusable water bottles and thermos and didn't buy even one water bottle throughout the trek. This is why we didn't need to use our filter bottles as well. They didn't charge us for cold water. 

When we were returning, I met a western lady at the Lodge at Pangboche. She was carrying an amazing instrument called "Steripen". This is a portable UV water purifier. It can clean a liter flask of water in about 90 seconds. The one that she had was rechargeable and she said there are ones which use batteries too. She said she also hadn't purchased a single bottle during all of her three passes trek. I was highly impressed by this gesture. 

Overall, we spent about 5000 Indian rupees for hot water between three of us in about 9 days from Namche Bazar to Pangboche. Ngima and the lady at Lukla didn't charge us for hot water at Ghat.