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[Käferthias]

Hi there,
this is my first fortress and - guess what - I have a stupid noob question.
I am following CaptnDucks video tutorial, everything went fine so far. I have 2 Farms, 2Stills, Bedrooms... 20 Dwarfs live in my fortress.
Lately I got the message, that some dwarf canceled drinking because the water is contaminated. I think (!) I assigned 2 places, where they can drink - 2 "murky pools", as they seem the only water source on my map. When using the "k"-button to look around, there is no sign of contamination in the pools.
One dwarf now died of dehydration...
What can i do?

[Il Palazzo]

Don't be a sadist and use those stills of yours. Make sure you've got free barrels ready(made at the carpenter's workshop). You need proper plants, like e.g. plump helmets, which you usually begin with, and which can be cultivated in the underground farms. I don't remember which plants are good for the above ground farm variety, but you can always consult the wiki.

Dwarves can(and want to) live on booze only, which in turn doesn't require water to brew.

Water as such is necessary only in the case of having wounded dwarves. For some unfathomable reason the dwarven public healthcare system doesn't approve of alcohol.

Murky pools are nasty, and good only for a temporary usage. I don't know about contamination, but maybe some blood or vomit got into them?

If you're really desperate for water, either for the healthcare reason, or 'cause you can't make booze due to various circumstances, do one of the following:
-build a well above the murky pool. IIRC, this magically makes the water drinkable and tasty.
-dig down, looking for the caverns, and hope for underground water source.

[Double A]

Stills and other workshops aren't automatic - you have to place an order for a dwarf to brew booze. For that you need a plant (preferably more than one...), a dwarf with brewing enabled (v->p->l->farming/related->brewing (should be white)), and at least one barrel. Barrels are made at a carpenter's shop by a dwarf with carpeting activated (v->p->l->woodworking->carpentry).

To make sure you don't run out of plants, go to your farm, check every square to see if it's muddy, then a b c d with plump helmets highlighted on each one. Finally, check to see if you have a farmer with farming (fields) activated.

[sinister agent]

If you're really stuck for time or resources for muddying an underground plot, you can farm some crops outdoors on grass or soil instead/as well.  You have to gather quite a few plants first, though - Under 'd' for designate, you can select an area outside - it needs to have shrubs in (if you're not sure, just designate a large area, and any shrubs will be highlighted), and one or more dwarves set to gather plants under their labour menu.

Longland grass, strawberries and fisher berries can all be brewed, and probably some others that I forget.  The main advantage of above ground farming is that all outdoor crops can be grown in all seasons, and you don't have to fiddle about with water and digging.  The downside is you need to gather the plants first (though once you've got a small supply of seeds, brewing them provides more seeds, and your stocks should grow exponentially over time), and your dwarves are more exposed to danger (also, some creatures will steal seeds occasionally).

You basically can't have too much booze.  Dwarves get through it a lot faster than any other resource.  They like variety too, so grow a few different kinds of crop if you have them. 

Pressing 'z' and going to 'kitchen' (you probably need one built, I'm not sure) will show you what seeds can be brewed or cooked.  The others can mostly be used to make dye or fibre for cloth, but they're not very important.

[Käferthias]

thanks for the answers so far.
I do have working underground farms producing mushrooms. I muddied the ground by flooding from one of the pools, closing the gap with a floodgate later (wasnt that easy as it kept raining and the dwarfs did not build the gate, while the tile was covered with water...). My two stills are also working, they are using my plum helmets (ore whatever they are called) to produce some alk. When pressing "z" it says I have "Plant 80; Drink 100; Seeds 200..." - should be enough, I thougt. But still, the dwarf died. 

[blue emu]

Was he already injured? Wounded Dwarves will drink only water... not booze. They sometimes die of dehydration if the other Dwarves aew too busy to bring them water, or if you have no buckets to carry the water from the drinking zone to the wounded Dwarf.

[Käferthias]

No, he wasnt injured. I checked that. Buckets are available. But if he was wounded, he would lay down in his bed, wouldnt he? He was walking around very slowly - until the end...

[Il Palazzo]

Maybe he was unable to reach the booze stockpile? Maybe he walled himself off in some inaccessible part of your fort?

[Käferthias]

Nope. he was wandering around in the meeting-hall, the bedrooms, and the food stockpile with the booze was right through the next door. The other dwarfes ran past him through that door for a quick drick but he preferred to walk in circles and die. 

[blue emu]

No, he wasnt injured. I checked that. Buckets are available. But if he was wounded, he would lay down in his bed, wouldnt he? He was walking around very slowly - until the end...

Sounds like he was insane. Had he failed a Strange Mood? Thrown a tantrum? Any red arrow on him (means Very Unhappy)?

[Käferthias]

I cant remember exactly, but I think he was very unhappy in the end - no wonder, as dehydrated as he was...