gotta be careful with pond water. all kinds of nasties in there. you can boil it for ten minutes to kill almost everything in the water but then you have hot water to cool before use. i would first strain it through cheese cloth or what ever you got to get rid of the chunks, boil it, then if you still are kinda weary add a few drops of bleach. that will kill everything and not hurt you either. there are methods that i built in the past that strain it through gravel to sand to charcoal then boil it but it takes alot more set up and time. i catch rain water at my place and when its dry i get water from a 352 acre lake..