Access to clean drinking water is essential for human life. Without clean water, a person can only survive for a few days. Unfortunately, storing water can be difficult, since it is very heavy. Furthermore, each person needs access to at least one gallon of water each day, so you can imagine how much water would need to be stored to keep a family of five alive for several weeks or months.
Stored water is not very portable and even carrying around a small quantity can be cumbersome. However, there are several ways in which a family can plan for access to clean water stores in the unfortunate event of an environmental disaster. If a terrorist attacks occurs on the county’s water supplies, or if you are forced to flee your home to a remote area, you won’t be able to just turn on a tap when you get thirsty.
It is important to keep in mind that in the event of a power cut, interruptions to water supplies are possible. This is because a water supply company requires electricity for filtering and pumping.
In the short term, bottles of water, purification tablets and filters can be useful. However, water purification tablets and filters still require you to have some access to a water, be it from a river, stream or lake.
At the moment, there are many interesting short-term water storage gadgets in the marketplace. Such gadgets include water-filled bricks, water-filled backpacks and water-filled socks. However, hydration packs for these gadgets can be expensive and they are still heavy to carry around.
Planning for long-term water survival is very important. Humans don’t only need access to water for drinking, they also need water to feed animals and crops and for cleaning.
It is possible to buy large water storage tanks, which can be kept in indoor or outdoor locations. Such tanks need to be certified BPA-free. In addition, if a water tank will be exposed to sunlight, it needs to contain UV inhibitors, otherwise it will be easily broken down by the sun’s UV rays.
As far as crops are concerned, it is possible to buy rainwater storage solutions and setup an automatic irrigation system. In many locations, rainwater can be used for drinking, as long as it is cleansed and held in a contaminate-free barrel.
Like food stores, water stores have to be rotated, as standing water can become a breading ground for bacteria. Every water container should be labelled with a date. However, don’t just rely on the dates to tell you whether or not the water is safe to drink, you also need to visually check the water for contaminates. It is also important to ensure that all of your water containers are properly sealed and located in dark environment.
Did you know that you can now buy water bladders, which can be used to quickly fill up your bathtub with a huge quantity of sealed, clean tap water in an emergency?