Waterborne illness and fermentation

[Guest guest]

After reading Haiti problems with water now, and having always wondered -can you

take water and add fermenting grains of some kind to kill the harmful pathogens?

Or just use anything that can ferment to mix in with dirty water and acidify it

enough to kill pathogens? Is this possible?

I read somewhere our ancestors in some parts never really drank water, but

fermented beverages exclusively. As far as i am reading info right, virtually

nothing harmful survives acidified solutions. Assuming no harmful chemicals are

in the water too, acidifying the water should make it potable, right?

i would be interested in any info on making water safer through culturing

beneficial organisms. I'm sure the biggest drawback is the time it takes for

them to develop and how competitive the harmful bacteria can be. Its hard for

any culture to start from scratch, whether it be from microbes, to humans.