>>1698416>pic>"we used to be able to"No, there have always been parasites that will fuck up your shit in the worst ways.
>pollution is the problemWhile true, the amount of pollution you get from drinking surface water is far less than it will be just eating some fish from the store or the fish you catch in the same body of water. Unless you are getting your water from a waterway where factories, residential sewage, dead bodies are being dumped into it there shouldn't be a problem with filtering and boiling the water to make it potable. You know, common sense type of things. However, always know that there's some sort of decaying animal life in bodies of water. That's just nature doing nature things. Filter and boil.
>OP's rant>algae*hand wavy response* That's usually not a problem. Filter and boil. The problem from algae will be ichthyotoxins; among some other things. You'll need to boil the water to break it down for safe drinking. You can't filter that toxin out. If you are really in a pickle you can always filter and distill the water.
>>1698528It is a parasite. Filter and boil.