MrHopZombie: #2 Water you either have it or not.

So now that we have some food stashed away for a rainy day its time to talk about H2O aka "water". Lets stop and think about where and how will you get this elixir of life that most of us take for granted. There are reservoirs,lakes,streams and natural springs that bring water magically up from far below the earths surface and it even falls from the sky but will it be safe? Will you have access to it?

What if that magic tap stopped working???

Water will be one of the most important items in a emergency in fact in just about every disaster situation on the news water quality or availability is always an issue. Just think about it even small amounts of contaminants can effect millions of gallons of water. Electricity is also needed to deliver the water to your house and that one of the first things to go. Knowing that I have clean drinkable water for myself and my family is a major priority. Many things influence how much water you need such as size of your family and where you live so lets talk about it on a per-person basis.

One gallon of clean water per person per day would be my minimum for drinking,cooking and hygiene needs such as brushing ones teeth. I also keep two gallons minimum of non drinkable water per person per day for other uses in the form of rain barrels. One simple rain barrel can be more than enough to flush a toilet or wash some clothes. A rain barrel would also get used during non emergency times to water plants or fill the bird bath so to me this was a no brainier I installed 3 @55gals each.

Water storage can be 2lt soda bottles filled right from the city tap and stored in a cool dark place for up to 6 months. Store bought water in a sealed container can be saved for a year. If you get your water from a well add 8 drops of regular plain bleach to each 2lt bottle before storing as city tap water is already treated. Make sure your containers are food grade #2 HDPE ,have a tight screw on cap and fill your containers right up to the top. Adding 8 drops of bleach to a 2lt bottle can help make questionable water safe so having bleach on hand is also beneficial.

Some places around the world can't get a clean drink of water but here we flush our toilets with it!!

Water filtration is a bit more advanced than this post but I would strongly recommend a good camping/hiking style water filtration NOT a Britta or other house style system as a backup.