Water: Getting Started

Why This is Important

1. Water is our most essential nutrient. People can survive days or weeks without food, but only about four days without water. The body uses water for digestion, absorption, circulation, transporting nutrients, building tissue, carrying away waste and maintaining body temperature.
   
   
2. Most household have water provided and treated by plants providing clean, non-contaminated drinking water. In the event of a pandemic, essential services such as water treatment may be interrupted for several reasons:

• Absenteeism of plant employees due to illness or fear
• Lack of electricity to run the plants
• Lack of products necessary to treat the water due to ill truck drivers or manufacturing plant workers.

How Much Water Should You Store?

Plan on having at least 1 gallon of water per person PER DAY on hand. Most people need 2 quarts of water per day for drinking. The other 2 quarts in the gallon per day are for cooking, bathing and cleaning. Don’t forget your pets. A small pet can drink one quart of water per day.

A large supply of stored water is bulky and not practical for everyone. One gallon of water weighs about 8 ½ pounds. Many local pandemic flu plans have water system restoration as a top priority, although it may not be purified. If you cannot store three months of drinking water, do these two things:

• Store AT LEAST 2 weeks water. That's the bare minimum and you should do it today! Store at least 4 weeks if you have infants, elderly, or immune-compromised household members.
  
  
• Get the next best thing – capability. This could mean:
  

1. Collapsible containers: to be filled after pandemic flu begins, before water service is degraded.
   
   
2. Water purification filters: to remove microorganisms from potentially contaminated water.

Of the two, water purification capability is the most important. Good drinking water will be needed during and between each pandemic wave.

Storage

Start NOW. If you use bottled water, get extra when you shop. Food grade plastic or glass containers are suitable for storing water. Thoroughly rinse and clean your containers and fill them up. Tap water is fine, unless there are restrictions from the health district.

Cautions:

1. Do not use empty milk jugs.  Bacteria in milk can become lodged in the plastic of the jug.  Additionally, the plastic is too thin to last more than a few months before leaking or breaking.

 2. Do not store your water near gasoline, kerosene, pesticides or similar substances.

3. Water is heavy - a 55 gallon barrel weighs about 460 pounds.  Store your water where its weight is adequately supported.  Basements and garage floors are great.

• Clearly label all drinking water containers "drinking water" with the current date.  Store the water in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and heat sources.
  
  
• If you have a pool, you have a water source for cleaning and bathing but NOT for drinking.  Water in swimming pools is chlorinated, but it also contains chemicals that can make it unsafe to drink.  Therefore, the EPA does NOT recommend drinking it.
  
  
• Water storage containers come in many shapes and sizes.  You can purchase new 5-6 gallon plastic containers designed for water.  For small spaces, consider storing foldable or collapsible water tanks which can be filled after a pandemic begins, and before utility services degrade or fail.
  

• If you have the room, consider purchasing large plastic drums.  Make sure they are food grade containers.
  
  
• Also consider the small 'kiddie' pools that hold several hundred gallons of water.  Keep the pool folded in its original box until it is needed.  This water will require treatment using steps in the (See: ‘Emergency Purification’ section.)
  

NOTE: Properly stored water does NOT go bad. However, it may taste stale. To improve the taste, just pour your water from one container into another one. Do this several times.

Photo: Courtesy EPA

Water: Finding and Filtering

Why This is Important

As your stored water is used up, you will need to find more water. Unless you have access to a close, reliable well, it will need to be both filtered and purified for safe drinking.

Planning Ahead

If you are already using a well, you may be able to get water. You may have to open it, and remove the pump. Here at two options:

• obtain a ‘well bucket’. An example of this is at this retailer's site (Lehman's - search for ‘well bucket’).
  
  
• obtain a short (about two feet) section of threaded galvanized pipe that will fit in the well casing. Cap the bottom. Drill a small hole in the top and tie a rope to it. Lower the pipe into the well, and pull up after it fills.
  

This water will need to be treated before drinking, because the well will have contamination from being opened and the pump removed.

Alternative Water Sources

Consider these sources. It would be best to scout out where these sources may be now and to consider how water can be transported if fuel is scarce or prohibitively expensive.

•  Rainwater
• Streams and rivers
• Ponds and lakes
• Natural springs
  

These will likely have contamination; regardless of how "clear" the water looks. Be sure to:

• Filter this water. This is to remove Giardia and Cryptosporidium
  
  
• Treat this water by boiling or chemical disinfection. See “Emergency purification” for detailed instructions.

Filtering Water

The ‘Gilmore’ 2-bucket System. This system is very simple and can be made in 10 minutes. It is easy to store and requires no mechanical skill. Except for the filter, all materials can be found locally, and the buckets are often free from bakeries. This is an excellent project for someone new to preparing.

The following is a home-made water filtering system courtesy of  'Gilmore.' This filtering system will remove microorganisms EXCEPT viruses. USE CHLORINE (OR BOILING) TO GET RID OF ANY VIRUS THAT MAY BE IN YOUR WATER! Filter your water using this system first, THEN use the chlorine (or boiling) for purification.

Materials needed:
Two (2) five gallon FOOD GRADE buckets, a Berkey Big Black water filter, and optional spout.

Assembly Instructions:

One lidded bucket will be placed on top the other lidded bucket. The top bucket will hold the unprocessed water, and the bottom bucket will catch the water that has been filtered.

1. Find a drill bit just slightly larger than the stem on the filter. Set the bottom of one bucket on one of the lids. Mark the center of the bucket bottom. Drill a hole through the bottom of the bucket and the lid that it is on. These holes allow the stem of the filter to pass through the buckets, but will keep the body of the filter from slipping through.
   
   
2. Remove the nut from the Berkey replacement filter stem.
   
   
3. Place the bucket with the hole in the bottom on the lid with the hole. Push the stem through these holes, and screw the nut (finger tight) onto the stem.
   
   
4. Gently place the bucket and lid with the filter ONTO the top of the second bucket.
   
   
5. Fill the upper bucket with water, and place the second lid on the top bucket. Gravity will feed the water through the filter.
   
   
6. Remember – the filtered water will still need to be chemically treated or boiled to kill viruses.
   

Last resort filtering

If you have no commercial filtering system, consider a slow sand filter, you will find instructions for that in this 'Water Treatment FAQ' document. A description and construction details are in the 'Slow Sand Filter' section.

Emergency Filtering

Why This is Important

Water filtering removes large contaminants. Eliminating the smallest microorganisms requires water purification. These microorganisms can make you very sick when there may be little or no medical care available. They are found even in the most pristine mountain streams.

How to Purify Water in an Emergency

Step 1: Preliminary cleaning (for dirty or cloudy water)

• Let water sit in containers for a day to allow solid materials to settle. Siphon water from the center and middle of the container.
  
  
• Put this water through several layers of coffee filters or clean cloth.

Step 2: Treat the water using any of these methods:

• Water purifiers and filters. Consider existing in-house water filters, especially those that come with a pitcher. Caution: make sure the filter removes microorganisms, not just chemical taste. Small personal and family-sized filters are available in camping supply stores and on the internet.
  
  
• Chemical treatment. The American Red Cross recommends 8 drops of regular unscented bleach (look for ‘sodium hypochlorite’ on the label) to each 2-liter bottle of clear water and 16 drops per gallon. Shake and let stand for 30 minutes. There should be a slight chlorine odor. If not, repeat the treatment.

NOTE: After putting bleach in the bottle and stirring, slosh some of the water in the cap and rim of the bottle or bucket. This will disinfect these areas.Boil water vigorously

For more information, see Food and Water in an Emergency.

• Boiling. Boil water for 12 minutes at a vigorous boil (NOT a simmer). This method uses heat energy, which may be scarce.
  
  
• Solar water disinfection (SODIS). If you have no bleach, and cannot boil your water, consider solar water disinfection. This requires relatively clear (not muddy) water, a favorable location (Southern US) and good weather conditions.
  
  
• Go to Solar Water Disinfection for requirements and limitations of this system.
  

Step 3: Taste enhancement.

• Before boiling water, add a pinch of salt.
  
  
• For boiled or chemically-treated water, aerate the water by pouring it from one container to another several times.
  

Additional Information

EPA Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water

For more detailed information see the 'Water Treatment and Storage FAQ' by Patton Turner. This is copyrighted and courtesy of Alan Hagan.

Emergency Home Preparation