Do You Have A Water Plan?
Here’s the thing about water that most of us already know… you can’t live long without it. In fact, ‘it’ will be your NUMBER ONE concern in any major disaster. As I’ve said before, I believe that many or most people who are actively involved in preparedness, often overlook the importance of water by making an assumption that water is and will be easy to obtain. This assumption is based on the readily available supply that most of us take for granted, and the fact that we often ‘see’ water in our natural surroundings as we travel here and there.
There are several issues to consider though.
A major disaster will likely coincide with a loss of electricity. Not everyone associates running tap-water with a dependence upon electricity. In nearly every case though, you cannot have one without the other. Pumps are required to move the water around the utility system and to supply the pressure necessary at your faucet. There are some locations and systems that are gravity fed, but in most of these cases a pump is still required to move the water up into a holding tank. When the power goes out, the system pressure will begin to reduce until there is no more – which could happen fairly quickly as people continue to consume the water in their homes.
People also tend to put the water issue out of their minds because they feel that should their faucets run dry, they could simply collect water from a nearby source – perhaps one that they pass every day in their travels like a pond, lake or stream. There are several problems with this though. One is that water is HEAVY, and weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. Another problem is transportation and the containment vessels to be used to collect and transport the water from the source to the home. Will a means of transportation be readily available, and if so, for how long? How will the water be collected and moved?
Plus, once you have obtained the water, where and how will you store it at home? And do you have the means to purify it for safety and to make it drinkable? If you will be relying on boiling, how long will you have the fuel to continue to boil water? Do you have a quality water filter that is capable of purifying many many gallons over a period of time?
There are serious things to think about, and problems to have a solution for in the event of needing water to survive. Without solutions in place ahead of time, you will probably NOT be able to procure the water that you need, which will force you to leave and be on-the-run. A very dangerous and life-threatening situation for sure.
Here are some ideas to consider to help solve the problem of losing your running tap-water during a collapse or disaster.
As a minimum precaution, it should be obvious that you should have some amount of stored water for use in case you need it. Surprisingly, I believe that many people do not have any more than a case of water bottles around their home. You need to store water in bulk, and there are a variety of ways to do so.
You could store many cases of bottled water. You may choose to purchase larger water storage containers, perhaps a number of fairly manageable water containers like this one, 7 Gallon Rigid Water Container
Remember this… your hot water heater stores drinkable water in its tank. You may have 30 to 50 gallons of water readily available there, and all you would need to do is open the drain valve for the water to pour out. In a disaster, your neighbors may not realize this. If you run out, maybe you could offer the tip to your neighbor in exchange for a few gallons 
If the power goes out and the event is associated with a known or probable disaster that may last for some time, you should immediately fill your tub with water. A bathtub can hold a-lot of water (between 40 and 60 gallons). You should never drink the water that you’ve saved in the bathtub without purifying it first. It will also obviously help the situation if you maintain a clean bathtub. There are water bladder for bathtubs
It should go without saying, that for the same reason you may be filling the bathtub, you should also fill any other water vessels that you may have on hand. This brings up the question, do you have any water storage vessels? You could also use 5-gallon pails in a pinch. Food-grade buckets are a better choice than standard buckets (check Emergency Essentials.com), but if you only have the standard variety, fill them anyway. It’s better off to be alive than to risk the slight contamination that may leach into the water over time from your plastic pail.
Having a water supply storage is one thing. But the problem is, what if it runs out (and it will if the disaster runs on long enough)? You will need a backup plan to procure more water. If you are fortunate enough to have water nearby, you will need a way to get there and back, and buckets to scoop and transport the water. If there are no problems with having an operating motor vehicle, and no problems with the road traveled, then you are in luck. You simply need the water vessels.
Without a motor vehicle, you will have tremendous difficulty moving even a small amount of water. So having a wagon or cart will be of great assistance.
You could also choose to install a rainwater collection system
The same principle applies if using a plastic tarp, which you may set up on four poles and have a hole in the middle which drains into a barrel, or whatever. A 9×12 tarp will capture more than 60 gallons of water per inch of rainfall!
You could choose to have a well dug on your property. This is an expensive option (thousands of dollars), but it is an option to consider. The well will require a pump (which runs on electricity), but you could use a backup alternative energy source such as a few solar photovoltaic panels which charge some heavy-duty 12-volt DC batteries (or a DC battery bank of your voltage choice design) which in turn will convert to AC power with an ‘inverter’ to run your well pump (assuming you have a 120-volt AC pump motor).
Always remember to purify your water before drinking it. This can be accomplished by boiling it for one minute. I also recommend to always filter your water for contaminants. Berkey Water Filters are one of the best available and I highly recommend the investment.
Having a natural source of water on your property is a HUGE benefit to those who are preparedness-minded. It is the number 1 requirement for sustaining your life, well before that of food. Do not overlook this. Think about your water plan. Do you have one?
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Every time we empty a bleach container of bleach, we fill it with water and date the jug and store it in the garage. It always has a couple drops of chlorine left in it, so it does not grow algae. This water will be great for flushing toilets at a later date. Every time we empty a milk, juice or purchased water gallon, we sanitize it, then fill it with water and add food grade iodine, then store it in the garage as well. This will be cooking, drinking or bathing water (if needed). We are lucky, we have a natural water source, and a couple of wells on our ranch, so plenty of water (today). We had to provide for alternate power supply in case of electric failure, but have taken the time and budget to do that.
Folks take water for granted….more articles about this planning should be made available. We live in a rural area, have livestock etc….so water is ALWAYS in the first round of our planning.
By the way, those that want to store fuel for future use should look in to a product labelled PRI _g or D depending on their stored item. this will keep their stored fuels useable for up to 15 years (instead of the typical 90 – 120 days for commercially available products) This might help folks store for longer if they are afraid they could not rotate their fuel fast enough to make it worth while.
Thanks, Ken, as usual for your helpful hints.
For those who are interested in gasoline and diesel long term storage…
PRI Fuel Stabilizer- Gasoline
Diesel Fuel Treatment PRI 16D
Ken… it may be an interesting fact that a pump setting on the ground will not suck water from a deeper depth than the atmospheric pressure. For any wells deeper than that number, the pumps are normally submersible and then the pumps push the water up to ground level.
The old hand pumps were positive displacement pumps. Examples are the pitcher pump and the long handle pump. Windmills are attached to the riser of the long handed pump. I have also used the chain pump which is kind of neat. The chain pump is type of a water pump in which several circular discs are positioned on an endless chain. One part of the chain dips in to the water, and the chain runs through a tube, slightly bigger than the diameter of the discs. As the chain is drawn up the tube, water becomes trapped between the discs and is lifted to and discharged at the top. This type of pump would be excellent to attach to a bicycle sprocket. These have been used in countries around the world for centuries to irrigate crops.
My sister-in-law still uses her well for drinking water. It is the simple bucket on a rope. Her bucket of fresh well water with a dipper sets on the kitchen cabinet. The well has never had a pump since it was dug, 160 years ago.
The reason I bring up the water pump, that source of stored water will eventually run out. Good, clean, drinking water from a well or spring will become very important. Most old wells or cisterns have been destroyed, filled in. These will need to be found and revitilized to their original status as the corner stone of any community. Most communities were built around a water source, water shared, and protected.
In Iraq, the Balkans, and other areas of war & strife, the wells were contaminated first to drive the peoples from the land. Fellow citizens were shot, thrown into the wells. Dead animals were also thrown into the wells. The US military sent specialist into these lands to find, clean, & sanitize these water sources for the people. So, find that original water source for your area, clean it up. You might want to keep it under your hat!
@sixpense,
That really brought back some memories I hadn’t examined in years! When I was a child we lived in a small town and not everyone had a well so the town had one that everyone used. I remember going to the town well with my Grandma pulling a small cart my Grandpa built to get jugs of water. We went every day, sometimes twice if we ran out. That well is closed now, has been for more than 20 years. But I know where it is, and it isn’t very far from where I live now.
Thank you for reminding me of another resource I had forgotten about.
thank you for this information. I often worry about water supplies going dry. What would you recommend as the least expensive way to store water, semi long term? In the past, I filled 2 liter soda bottles with water and froze them.
A least expensive way may be doing what you are doing, except, you do not need to freeze them… Simply store them in a place that doesn’t get too hot. Dump them out and replace with fresh water about every 6 months.
Thanks Tammy…..I would suggest readers to read all of Kens’ articles on water. There is no such thing as long term storage of water. It will eventually run Out! Zip! Gone! The gest of the comment is “there is no replacement for fresh, clean, natural water”. Small communities store millions of gallons for instant use. It was never meant for long term storage. A replenishable water source should be somewhere in your mind, or your not thinking outside the box. Stored water is for only short term emergencies. Just read some of TripodXL comments, its not going to be easy! My folks took a wooden barrel in a horse drawn cart several miles to get water. My father asked me once, “son, do you know how to keep water from sloshing out of the barrel?” My uncles took the old truck many miles to a spring each saturday to get water. They filled cream cans. This was their only water source. It was a good time to bath , too. Oh, that water was coooold. This is why I read this blog, gives me food for thought. Reminds me of everything I had forgotten. I hope that bell rings for you to.
I have a good well on my property, with solar panel for the pump, but I’ve been worried about it going bad, either by going dry or becoming contaminated. So I printed out satellite maps of a 5 mile circle around my house and I’ve been checking out every water source I see. It ‘seems’ like there are a lot of waterways nearby, but most of them are irrigation canals, and if the corp of engineers aren’t up at the lake letting water out of the dam, the canals will be dry. There are natural rivers, several within what I consider my travel distance. I have a 25 mile range with my electric scooter if it’s just carrying me, towing my cart full of water will cut that in half, so I’m looking at no more than 5 miles from home. I’m not even considering using my car or truck for water fetching, because I figure if I have to go get water then things are probably bad enough that I won’t have gas anyway. But I have solar power to charge the scooter.
Tammy…… thats great! Looking ahead like that. If only most people would do that much. I can’t help to notice this stuff while driving around. Even in small towns, I see cisterns, decorated with flower pots. Old homestead locations, house gone, but where was the well or cistern? Its there somewhere! House empty, owner bugged out, bank or morgage company owned, maybe a well or cistern. These will be #1 water sources, clean, and usable. Older homes built before city water was extended to the country will have one or the other. Stream, river, canal, lake water will have to be treated. Never know who washed their butt just up stream. Or heck, a major wastewater plant location just around the bend.