Storing Emergency Drinking Water

Without water, an individual will only live for 3 days. This makes water a vital facet of emergency preparedness.

In many homes, nearly twenty-five gallons of water each day is utilized by each individual. This includes water used in drinking, cleaning, flushing and food preparation. Additionally, most of the systems that supply water to those homes are dependent on electricity. This includes those houses that employ well water, because they often use electric powered pump systems. So, water storage is critical should the power grid go down.

It's recommended that you look at your family’s needs for a 7 day period. With conscientious consumption, two to three gallons per individual will be enough in very warm weather. Half of this will be drinking water. The rest will be used for hygiene and cooking. While you might not drink nearly this much water on a daily basis, remember that other drinks will be limited. You'll also be living without air conditioning or electric fans. You've got to replenish water displaced via perspiration and breathing.

If you learn beforehand that you might suffer a loss of your supply of water, use this opportunity to fill bathtubs, sinks, ice chests and every other container you have that's good enough to hold water without leaking. Separate your water into a couple of groups: drinking and non drinking uses.

Plan to keep enough water to last the home seven days. This means that each member of your family will need 21 gallons of water in storage. To be safe, you might wish to double this quantity. For 5 persons, this would mean 105 gallons of water should be stored. Twice this amount would mean you'd need a bit over 200 gallons. Translated, this would mean you would need 2 to 4, fifty-five gallon drums.

The weight of a gallon of water is below eight and a half pounds. This is an important consideration for storage and transportation. Large amounts of water are safest stored on a reinforced cement floor because the weight of 55 gallons of water is nearly five hundred pounds -- and that doesn't include the weight of the drum! This really is too heavy for most other floors.

Should the unforeseen happen, get useable water out of other places at your residence. Typical hot water heaters may hold forty or more gallons of drinkable water. The water tank part of the commode also has water which is able to be used for drinking purposes. Collect ice from your deep freeze. Do not throw away the water within canned products as it is another important source of moisture when every drop counts.

Water may be obtained coming from downspouts or inside a kid's wading pool in the course of a rain. You may leave a clean sheet or bedspread out in the course of the rain or overnight on the lawn to gather the dew. Wring it out over a storage container. Harvest non-drinking water from toilet bowls and waterbed mattresses.

Plan ahead to get ready for probable water shortages. Use your creative imagination to replenish stored water when utilities are not functioning. Train yourself and your family members to reduce the use of the water you DO possess.