Clearly, access to water is critical for your survival. Even short-term emergencies (1 – 3 days) can become a major concern if you have taken no preparations or given no thought to “what do we do for water if the power goes out?”
There are a couple of different scenarios that can lead from momentary discomfort all the way to health or life-threatening circumstances. If you are traveling, you don’t have access to your normal resources and you can find yourself in a precarious situation. Given how quickly even mild dehydration can occur, along with a reduction in energy, mental clarity etc., it makes sense to always have at least one bottle of water for each person when you are on a trip.
In most cases, no matter where you are, you will almost always have access to a body of water, whether a stream, pond, lake or even water collected in a rain barrel or a roadside ditch. The question you must answer is “Can I drink or use that water?” Determining whether you can use or drink from any particular water source is not a topic that can easily be covered in a single post. Aside from worrying about bacterial or viral contamination, you need to determine if there is likely to be any toxic chemical contamination etc.
I found a 30-page online document that you can download for free that covers purifying water using chlorine, iodine, and javel as well as different methods of boiling water. It covers finding water in different environments, how to search for water using various natural clues and when to dig for water and much, much more.
You also need to have an understanding of what your body will require to maintain proper hydration. Fortunately, the US Military has done a mountain of research into just this topic. They have a free online document you can download as well. Try the link below:
Water Requirements and Soldier Hydration
Just a few things to think about if you don’t have any water supplies put away.
- Cases of water bottles are cheap, pick up a couple and make sure you keep some in the car.
- Gallon jugs of water are cheap but if you happen to buy large containers of soda, you can rinse them out and refill with tap water. Change every six months.
- Get a 3-foot length of tubing that will fit over the faucet end of the tap at the bottom of your hot water heater. (Remember it will be hot for the first couple of hours after a power outage). The water above the faucet will force the water in the tank out until it is almost empty. You could have as much as 50 gallons in there.
- If you open a downstairs faucet (like in a laundry tub or a basement sink) the existing water in your house plumbing will flow out the lower tap. Could be several gallons. Put a container under the tap and open it up.
- If you are in an apartment building, in a lower level apartment, water will flow out of the piping above you. Fill whatever containers you have.
- If you are in your own house and have kids, and a wading pool, and in an urban area, push the pool under your outside faucet (or run some garden hose to wherever the pool is) and start filling it up as soon as you lose power. Residual pressure in the municipality’s water supply system (depending on where you are located relative to the water supply) will push some water out of the water pipes running past your house. And if your area is supplied by a water tower, or you are at a lower elevation than other parts of town, you can collect a lot of water. This will also work if you want to fill your bathtub. I wouldn’t drink the wading pool water without treating it. Before filling the bathtub with water you might want to clean it up with dish soap and rinse it well first.
- An inground or aboveground swimming pool is a tremendous source of water. It is not safe to drink. There are a couple of issues. The level of chlorine may have been broken down by the sun (good for drinking) to a low enough level that bacteria have started to grow in the pool (bad to drink). In addition, pool or spa water main contain conditioners, anti-foam solutions, and stabilizers that are NOT good to drink. But it is absolutely okay to use this water for washing, using it to flush your toilet, launder clothes etc.
- Use rain barrels under your eavestrough downspouts. Of course, you can’t do this in some municipalities. If you don’t have rain barrels, anything that will hold water will provide you with more than you have if you don’t try and catch the rainwater.
- If it is or is about to rain, by positioning a large tarp on a slight slope (either a natural slope or one you created), you can direct a large amount of water into a collection container. Of course, rainwater is generally safe to drink assuming the rain is not falling through a chemical plume and the tarp is clean.
Just as I completed this post I ran across this nifty build. It will cost you a few bucks but can filter up to 5 gallons of drinkable water in a 24 hour period. Check it out.
DIY Water Filter 1: http://www.perimeterpermaculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DIY-Water-Filter.pdf
