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WATER
Water is the most important item in your preparedness stockpile. You can live for several days, even weeks without food, but water only a couple of days. So it is important to have a plan in place for your water needs. This includes drinking, cooking, washing dishes, laundry, bathing, and also water for pets or livestock.
How much Water is Recommended for Daily Use
Plan for 2 gallons per person per day – this should be enough for drinking as well as other needs.
Then know your pets and livestock daily water needs and take those into account as well.
Having water stored is a great assurance to knowing that is taken care of for yourself and your family. Each family needs to determine how much water they want to store. Some families do only 3 days, others do 2 weeks, and some do 3 months to a year. Most people get their water from a city water service or a private well. Both of these require electricity to supply. Having a back-up plan is critical to the survival of you and your family.
How to Store Water Properly
Short term issues can be solved with using your stored water or with a generator. If you have a generator make sure that you have an appropriate amount of fuel to run the generator stored as well. If you have city water, there maybe a boil warning, or may not be available at all. For city dwellers, this is another reason to have a minimum amount of water stored for emergencies.
Longer term issues are going to require either larger amounts of stored water or learning to collect water from local resources.
Many people store water differently. Food grade bottles and containers are good for storing short term supplies. Do not use milk jugs, these are designed to breakdown quickly and you may have a mess if one or more breakdown while storing your water. The two-liter pop bottles work great.
Sources for storing larger amounts of water are food grade buckets or barrels. These can be purchased new from several online stores, or can be found locally through craigslist. Other places to ask for food grade buckets and lids are local bakeries, delis, restaurants, and other food service vendors. Often these buckets are thrown out, so you may be able to find a free source. In order for buckets to be safe for water storage they should be stamped on the bottom by the FDA or USDA. You can also contact the manufacture and ask if their buckets qualify for food grade. If using barrels add a spigot or pump to your list of needs to make retrieving the water easier.
Some people choose to buy bottled water.
Another option is canned water. For those that have shelves of empty canning jars, that is a perfect place to hold canned water. This is done with the water bath canning method.
All stored water should be kept in a cool dark environment and it is recommended that the water be exchanged every 6 months to a year.
How to Treat your Stored Water
The most common is with NON-scented Bleach. Add 1/8 teaspoon for every gallon of water.
If your storage containers are solid in the sense that light cannot get through, you could store your water without treatment. But checking regularly for impurities is recommended.
When or if your stored water becomes depleted and your need for water is now your #1 priority. Knowing when, where and how to get water is another important aspect of your survival.
How to Collect Water
Know your local water sources, ditches, creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, natural springs, ponds, private wells, etc. Take into account run-off from industrial or agricultural sources, water that has been contaminated with flooded waters.
Find the closest water source to your location and determine if it is suitable for drinking after being filtered and boiled. Fast moving water is the best option while stagnant ponds are probably the least favorable.
If you have a well there are some ways to get to your water without electricity. There are special hand pumps that are made for wells even as deep as 300 feet. They can be pricey. Another alternative is a torpedo bucket. This is a long narrow bucket that can be let down the well piping to collect water than pulled back up.
INSTRUCTIONS OF USING WELL BUCKET
Locate your well head in your yard, and remove the cover with the appropriate tools. It is possible that your well cover will be difficult to remove. You may want to have some long-handled wrenches to give you more leverage. A can of penetrating lubricant may help ease the nuts off the bolts with less effort.
Test the depth of the water in the well by lowering a rope until you hit water.
Tie that amount of rope to the well bucket handle. Tie the opposite end of the rope to a fixed object (such as a clothes line post or sturdy fence) so it doesn't slip through your hands as you feed the well bucket into the well.
Lower the bucket and rope into the well until you reach the water level.
Allow the well bucket to fill with water. Then retrieve it by reeling in the rope slack.
Fill clean containers with as much water as you need by repeating Steps 4 and 5.
Replace the well head cover on the well head, and refasten the nuts securely.
Beyond collecting water from those sources there are several other options.
One of the most popular is collecting rain water. Do not collect rain water from roofs that are shingled. These materials could leach toxic chemicals into your water. Even watering your food sources with that water should be done so with caution. One possible remedy to that solution is to cover your roof with tarps, and then the water can be collected through the downspouts. Metal roofs do not have the concerns with leaching.
There are special barrels/containers that can be purchased for collecting rain water in that fashion. They are also easy to make. Barrels can be placed at the bottom of the downspouts flowing into a tray area that is screened to keep leaves, twigs and other debris out of the water.
Any way you can collect rain water, do it, empty buckets, barrels, bowls, pots, bathtubs, tarps, etc.
Other possible water collection methods
Drilling your own well
Belowground stills
Solar stills
Once the water is collected, the water needs to be filtered and/or purified and boiled.
How to Filter, Purify and Boil Water
Boiling
Boiling is the easiest method for “cleaning” water, but boiling will not remove foreign contaminants or heavy metals or radiation.
Boil water for 20-30 minutes to kills all bacterial borne organisms. This is disputed greatly on the length of boil time required to kill bacteria. Some say less than a minute, some say 5 minutes. This is the longest time mentioned. In this type of situation it is better to be safe than sorry.
Filtering
Filtering can be done through different methods. Some choose to buy filtering systems, other prefer to build their own. This is a simple and easy to do build your own filter.
Pour-though filtering systems can be made in an emergency. Here's one example:
1. Take a five or seven gallon pail (a 55-gallon drum can also be used for a larger scale system) and drill or punch a series of small holes on the bottom.
2. Place several layers of cloth on the bottom of the bucket, this can be anything from denim to an old table cloth.
3. Add a thick layer of sand (preferred) or loose dirt. This will be the main filtering element, so you should add at least half of the pail's depth.
4. Add another few layers of cloth, weighted down with a few larger rocks.
5. Your home-made filter should be several inches below the top of the bucket.
6. Place another bucket or other collection device under the holes you punched on the bottom.
7. Pour collected or gathered water into the top of your new filter system. As gravity works its magic, the water will filter through the media and drip out the bottom, into your collection device. If the water is cloudy or full of sediment, simply let it drop to the bottom and draw the cleaner water off the top of your collection device with a straw or tube.
(If you have a stash of activated charcoal, possibly acquired from an aquarium dealer, you can put a layer inside this filter. Place a layer of cloth above and especially below the charcoal. This will remove other contaminants and reduce any unpleasant smell or taste.)
While this system may not be the best purification method, it has been successfully used in the past. For rain water or water gathered from what appear to be relatively clean sources of running water, the system should work fine. If you have no water source but a contaminated puddle, oily highway runoff or similar polluted source, the filter may be better than nothing, but it's not a great option.
Once the system has been established and works, you must remember to change the sand or dirt regularly.
Purifying
A water purifier is held to standards of removing 99.9999% of pathogenic bacteria and also removing 99.9999% of viruses. That is why the commercial filter – purifier systems are so popular. Even for home use during “normal” times, people use them to clean their tap or well water. There are several manufactures of these systems and some that can be built on your own with the purchase of the filters.
Other Water Treatment Methods
Silver can also be used to treat water from bacteria and viruses. Colloidal silver is the most popular type used, but even dropping a silver coin into a glass picture of water is said to be beneficial.
Colloidal silver as a water disinfectant: Electrolytically dissolved silver has been used as a water disinfecting agent including in drinking water supplies of the Russian Mir orbital space station and the International Space Station. The World Health Organization includes silver in a colloidal state produced by electrolysis of silver electrodes in water, and colloidal silver in water filters as two of a number of water disinfection methods specified to provide safe drinking water in developing countries.
Guide to Using Tinctures of Iodine to Disinfect Drinking Water
- Tincture of iodine: If you have no iodine tablets but have liquid iodine such as would be used to treat a wound, (typically this is a 2% tincture of iodine) try a teaspoon of iodine in a gallon of water.
- Do not use iodine to purify water for certain people:
- people who are allergic to iodine - possibly including people allergic to shellfish
- people who have a thyroid disorder
- people who are taking lithium (a medication)
- women over fifty and women who are pregnant (without a doctor's advice)
[OPINION] In an emergency if you have nothing else, no way to boil water, no ceramic filter, but you have iodine, use it. But beware that iodine is not fully effective as a water sterilization method and be sure to see the allergic reaction warnings just above.
Resources
· How to collect water and what water to collect
o Belowground Still - http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-find-water2.htm
o http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-find-water3.htm
o Solar Still - http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/how-to-make-a-solar-water-survival-still/
o An Introduction to Rainwater Harvesting - http://www.gdrc.org/uem/water/rainwater/introduction.html
o How to build a rain barrel - http://www.naturalrainwater.com/make_rainbarrel.htm
o How to drill your own well - http://howtodrillawell.com/
o How to make a torpedo bucket - http://www.survivalblog.com/2007/06/letter_re_well_torpedo_or_bull.html
o Torpedo Bucket - http://www.lehmans.com/store/Water___Buckets___Galvanized_Well_Bucket___550202?Args=
o http://www.hydromissions.com/products.htm#pumps
o http://www.whenshtf.com/showthread.php?35313-Well-bucket
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· How to purify/filter/boil water
o A Filter is different than a Purifier - http://www.berkeyfilters.com/filtervspurifier.htm
o How to Choose a Water Filter or Purifier, Part 1 http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/water+filter+howto.html
o http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-find-water4.htm
o Potable Rainwater: Filtration and Purification -
http://www.harvesth2o.com/filtration_purification.shtml
o How To Treat Water For Drinking - http://www.dr-kate.com/prepare/treating-water.htm
o How to Treat or Purify Water to Sanitize it For Drinking http://www.inspectapedia.com/water/Drinking_Water_Purification.htm
o How to Treat Water in a Survival Situation - http://www.avianweb.com/wateremergencytreatment.html
Colloidal silver - http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=145687
o Iodine for water treatment - http://www.inspectapedia.com/water/Drinking_Water_Purification3.htm
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o Storing Water - http://www.dr-kate.com/prepare/water.htm
o http://surviveeconomiccollapse.com/survival-preparedness-how-to-store-water-properly/
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· How much water to store – how much for daily intake and use
o http://surviveeconomiccollapse.com/survival-preparedness-%e2%80%93-emergency-water-storage/
o http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/survival-preparedness-with-limited-resources/
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· General Links
o http://www.berkeyfilters.com/emergency-water.htm
o http://theepicenter.com/tow02236.html
o http://www.preparednesspro.com/blog/myths-and-facts-of-water-storage/
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