It Begins With Water
My good friend Rich Beresford III from Around the Cabin will often say that the first thing he asks someone new to prepping is, “What are you going to do for water?” He’s right to ask the question, too, because not only is water absolutely life critical, it is often overlooked, or at least underprepped.
Keeping Track Of Water Usage
Did you ever keep track of how much water your family uses in a day? From drinking and food prep to flushing toilets, washing dishes, bathing, and laundry, just one person can easily go through 80+ gallons a day. Granted, some of those activities won’t be happening during a major disaster, but it is still a good idea to have some sort of baseline. The basic point here is that we tend to use an awful lot of water without giving it much thought.
How much water?
Various and sundry experts suggest storing a minimum of one gallon per person for each day of a crisis. Okay but how can you possibly know ahead of time not just WHAT the disaster will be but HOW LONG it will last? If you can manage to pull that off, you should probably start picking winning lottery numbers.
Not to mention, one gallon of water per person isn’t very much. If that’s all the water you’ll have for all of your needs, it isn’t going to go very far. So, how much water should you store? Really, as much as possible.
Nobody has gone through a true emergency and complained about having too much clean, potable water. And no matter how much you have, be sure to have multiple methods for filtering and disinfecting additional water from what we could call “wild” sources, like streams, ponds, and collected rainwater.
Bathtub Water?
One recommendation I see a lot is to fill your bathtub as soon as you realize water supplies might become limited.
Two things come to mind.
First, if you’re going to do that, be damn sure to use the cold tap, not hot. We’ll discuss why in a minute.
Second, be honest with yourself. Is your tub routinely so clean you’d feel comfortable drinking water out of it? I have two teenage boys at home. I scrub the tub about every other day and still shudder at the thought of dunking my head for a drink from it.
I’m not saying the full tub is a bad idea. Just that you need to think it through. You’re going to want some sort of filtration, just to be on the safe side.
As for not using the hot water, here’s why. Just about every modern residence in America is equipped with a water heater. On average, that’s 40 gallons or so of water that you’re storing without even noticing it. If you don’t know already, learn where your water heater is located and how to safely drain it. Be sure that the heater is turned off when draining and keep it off until services are restored and the heater is full again.
Bottled Water
One of the easiest ways to store water is by purchasing cases of bottled water. Locally, I can pick up a case of half-liter bottles for just $1.99 on sale. That’s a little over 3 gallons of water per case. Picking up a case or two when you find it on sale will add up quickly.
Cases of bottled water generally stack fairly well and it is also easy to stash them throughout closets and under beds.
Water Containers
There are a few different types of containers on the market, too, that are designed for storing water. Keep in mind that water is heavy (8.34lbs per gallon) and it takes up a specific amount of space (231 square inches per gallon).
Neither of those facts are negotiable. You can’t make it lighter, you can’t compress it. Water is what it is. So, as you shop for a container, make sure you’ll be able to move it once it is full.
How much is really enough?
Something else to consider as you determine just how much water you truly need. All of those freeze-dried and dehydrated meals that are so popular among preppers and survivalists require water to prepare. On top of that, they are often loaded with sodium and thus tend to make you thirsty.
If your home is equipped with gutters, be sure to invest in some sort of rain catchment system. Just one inch of rain on a 1,500 square foot roof will result in over 900 gallons of water that could be collected. If you’re curious, the formula is Square Footage x Rainfall in Inches x 0.623 = Gallons of Water.
Rainwater is generally pure as it falls from the sky. However, after running across your roof and through the gutters, probably not so much anymore. Animal urine and feces, bugs, possibly mold and such. Yeah, you’re not going to want to just mouthful from the barrel. But, all it would take is one good rainfall to get your family set on emergency water for a short while.
If you live in an area where rainwater harvesting is prohibited by HOA covenants, I’d seriously consider moving or working like hell to get those rules changed. If rainwater harvesting is illegal through city ordinance or other such laws, same advice applies.
Other collection methods
As for collection methods like solar stills (i.e. digging a hole, covering it with plastic, and waiting for water to condense and fall into a container you’ve placed in the hole), I’d HIGHLY encourage you to test those methods first to determine just how well they work.
I’ve mentioned the importance of having supplies for filtering and disinfecting water on hand. Redundancy is the name of the game. Make sure you have multiple backups, just in case. Consuming bad water leads to all sorts of bad things, from farts with lumps to far worse.
Boiling is generally regarded as the simplest and safest method for the average family. Be sure to run the water through a coffee filter or similar first, though, to remove sediment and debris.
There are many water filters on the market today, with some of the top names being Sawyer, Berkey, Katadyn, and Lifestraw. Do your homework and determine which product(s) will be best for your family. Take into account filtering capacity, ease of use, ease of cleaning, and cost.
Wrapping it up
Water is critically important to survival and the ready supply of it from the tap is often one of the first things affected by an emergency. Take the time now to prepare accordingly.
About the author
Jim Cobb is a well known freelance author on survival and other topics.
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Excellent reminder Jim!
A Gallon per person per day came from the old Civil Defense manuals of the 1950’s and was MINIMUM for folks Resting inside a Fallout Shelter. No washing up just survival level water.
As a retired medical soldier I can assure you 2+ gallons just for drinking is needed IF your active, hiking, working outdoors and such.
As you mentioned the rainwater collection formula can I suggest having clean tarps, cordage, maybe some prearranged hooks to ease setup and a large container to collect it in? I have a 10 X 20 foot tarp and using your formula a 1/2 inch of rain = 60 gallons of rainwater. Even a hard mist can generate about 15-20 gallons. I found with a windy rainstorm that a couple of smaller 10 X 10 or so are MUCH easier to handle. My emergency rainwater collection kit is stored inside a 40 gallon screw top Olive Barrel and it holds the large tarp, a couple of smaller ones, cordage, and Pool Shock with instructions to purify surface water.
Anybody have a source for dehydrated water? (I bought a WATERBOB a couple of years ago for 24 bucks- they are now on sale for 81 bucks.
Hey, David, we don’t usually sell stuff, but Just For You I could sell you some dehydrated water! A full gallon ziplock bag full would be only $20. Just add water and you’ll have a gallon of water! It’s So Much Lighter than carrying the fully hydrated version!