Water Storage Is More Important Than Food

Water Storage, It is more important than food PLEASE READ THIS SECTION ALL THE WAY TO THE END AND WATCH THE VIDEOS. THERE IS A
LOT OF IMPORTANT INFORMATION HERE THAT WILL ANSWER MOST OF YOUR QUESTIONS.

How much water have you stored for your family? You cannot live more than 3 days without water. Our infrastructure is very fragile and can easily be tampered with or disrupted. Those disruptions can occur as a result of a disaster, contamination, water main break or sabotage.
Each family should store a minimum of 2 gallons, per person for at least 2 weeks. That is 28 gallons per person. This is the bare minimum and would only supply you water for drinking, cooking and washing dishes and your hands.

If you have pets, you should store water for them as well. If you have more space, store more water.
In addition to storing some water it would be wise to store at least one method or tool that will enable you to treat or filter water that you can find that may not be safe to drink. These methods or tools can include water purifying tables or drops, a ceramic filtration system, a water filtering bottle such as Seychelle or other similar brands, (Sold at all Home Storage
Centers), A Berkey brand water filter, Sawyer or Life Straw water filters.

There are a wide variety of things available and all can be purchased online. Do some research, determine a budget and start out with one tool for your family. It would be a wise investment to buy a second kind later. In the Prepper world there is a saying, “Two is one and one is none”. Always
have a back-up in case one item is lost or broken. Our family has bought a Life Straw or small Sawyer hand held filter for each person to keep in their 72 hr kit.

FAQs on water storage. How much should I store? A MINIMUM of 2 gallons per person for 2 weeks. Store more for pets. Store as much as you possibly can. Can I store water in used milk jugs? It is best if you do not reuse milk jugs. The plastic used for those is not meant for long term use. Eventually they will break down and leak.

• EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND PROVIDENT LIVING NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2020
• What kinds of bottles CAN I reuse? Clean 2 L soda bottles or juice bottles are great if you have a small budget but want to store water now. Just clean well, use clean tap water and store somewhere dark.
• How much bleach should I use when filling containers to store water for later? Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to put bleach in water as you are storing it. If you have washed your used or brand new container really well and are filling them with treated city water like most of us use….there is NO NEED to add bleach. Also, if you add bleach and the water sits and eventually you use it for drinking or cooking…your food and drinks will taste like bleach. Good luck getting your babies or kids to drink that.
• If you still feel that you are going to use bleach no matter what, use regular, old fashioned non-scented bleach. And it should not have any thickeners in it either. If you feel you MUST add something to the water as you prepare to store it, there are water treatment tablets and drops you can buy for that purpose.
• Can we store water in USED barrels? I would be VERY careful when buying used 50 gallon barrels for water storage. You have to be 100% sure that they were previously used for foods or drinks for human consumption. Do not use if you know they were used but you don’t know what was in them before. Plastics absorb chemicals that will leach back into your water. Plastic barrels from soda bottling companies should be fine. You might even enjoy the slight soda-pop taste of you water, even after cleaning well.
• Does is matter what color the barrels are? If you have a choice, buy blue barrels or barrels that are NOT white. The dark color helps to lessen the growth of algae.
• Did you know that bleach goes bad? The shelf-life of bleach is only about 6 months long.
• After 6 months the chemical compounds that make bleach revert back to salts and does not have the effect for which you bought it.
• Do we need to “rotate” our water that we have stored? We keep forgetting to do that. Good news! You are in luck. There is no reason to use up and rotate our water storage. If everything was done properly in the beginning, the water should be fine. Of course, it would be wise to open up things and look at it and smell it and see if there is no algae or other contaminants in the water. If you detect a problem, now is the time to correct it.
• Can we fill our barrels using a garden hose? To be honest, many of us have and have lived. If you are particular about using a garden hose and are worried about contaminants, you may want to purchase a NEW siphon hose, Thermoplastic Transfer pump or “Jiggle hose”. It is made of clear tubing and has a brass fitting on one end. It is made for moving small amounts of water without electricity. You can find these at major hardware stores. Store this hose with your water barrels.
• Can I store the water barrels outside? If you have no room to store them in your basement or garage you may have to store them outside. If you have a shed, that would be great. Do the best you can do. To prevent algae growth, use dark barrels and keep in the shade or cover them. If you live where it will freeze, do not fill above 75% full. This will prevent them from bursting when it freezes.
• What is the BEST container or way to store water? The best way is whatever works for your family situation. In our home we have several cases of commercial water bottles. They are easy to find and use and are inexpensive. They will break down eventually so do rotate those out a little at a time. We also have a few juice bottles with water in them as well as a couple 50 gallon barrels for a longer-term event if needed. Small containers are good because they are portable if needed. Large ones are for a longer-term event and are good if you are still in your home.
• How do we improve the taste of store water? To improve the taste of stored water, simply pour some back and forth between 2 containers a few times to add oxygen to the water. It is also wise to store some drink mixes or flavoring to mix up. This will be especially important if you have children. Stale water will be fine for cooking, cleaning and pets.
• A couple final notes. It is recommended to store your water containers up off of direct contact with cement if at all possible. Purchase at least one barrel pump to be able to remove water from your large barrels when in use. Store them with your barrels. You can buy these from Industrial Container Supply or Emergency Essentials in SLC, UT. They range in price from $11-15 each. When it comes to this, many do not have a lot of room or have the ideal way to store all the water they want. Just start somewhere and do the best that you can do. You can always add more water containers or buy better ones as funds allow. The most important thing is to start now!

Would you like a great handout on water storage, and do you like videos to watch?
For a great comprehensive class handout on Water Storage and Filtration, click on these links
HERE. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz0j2mxcGdlWYXktUzdUa014c28/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz0j2mxcGdlWbDZTdEoydXFiT1k/view?usp=sharing
I have several more handouts on this topic as well in my Google Drive WATER folder. Here is the link to that.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0Bz0j2mxcGdlWdVI0VVJlZjVyLVU?usp=sharing
I recently found 3 great videos on this topic that you will enjoy as well. Here are the links for those. Each one is like watching a mini class. The 5 best treatment methods for 55 gal water barrels. https://youtu.be/ESkpWviLvQ0
How to disinfect water using Calcium Hypochlorite. https://youtu.be/ZMga6S3FhAY
Making water safe to drink. https://youtu.be/MPLduMim7VY

 

Emergency Water Storage

ONLY USE WATER THAT HAS BEEN PROPERLY DISINFECTED FOR DRINKING, COOKING, MAKING ANY PREPARED DRINK, WASHING DISHES AND FOR BRUSHING TEETH.

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/emergency-disinfection-drinking-water

How To Store Water Long Term Under A Bed For Survival

Bleach

Everywhere you look you will see a recommendation to store bleach for water purification. What you may not have seen is that liquid bleach has a limited shelf life of 6 to 12 months.  I fear that this could be leaving a lot of people ill-prepared to produce safe, potable water in an emergency.

This means that a person that began prepping a year ago, and does not know to rotate their bleach, is already living with false security when it comes to water purification.  And what about people that have been prepping longer?

As long as pool shock (see below) is stored properly, it will have an almost indefinite shelf life plus, a small one pound package will treat many thousands of gallons of water. Ten thousand to be exact.  It can be mixed and used as potable water and as a disinfectant, just like bottled liquid bleach.

At the end of the day, do your own research and decide for yourself.

Iodine

Common household iodine (or “tincture of iodine”). You may have iodine in your medicine cabinet or first aid kit. Add five drops of 2% tincture of iodine to each quart or liter of water that you are disinfecting. If the water is cloudy or colored, add 10 drops of iodine. Stir and let the water stand for at least 30 minutes before use.

Pool Shock – calcium hypochlorite.

As opposed to liquid chlorine bleach, pool shock has an indefinite shelf life.

Granular calcium hypochlorite. The first step is to make a chlorine solution that you will use to disinfect your water. For your safety, do it in a ventilated area and wear eye protection. Add one heaping teaspoon (approximately ¼ ounce) of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (HTH) to two gallons of water and stir until the particles have dissolved. The mixture will produce a chlorine solution of approximately 500 milligrams per liter. To disinfect water, add one part of the chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water you are treating. This is about the same as adding 1 pint (16 ounces or two cups) of the chlorine solution to 12.5 gallons of water. (This can be reduced to one cup chlorine solution to 6 gallons plus 4 cups water OR 1/2 cup solution to 3 gallons plus 2 cups water OR 1/4th cup solution to 1 gallon plus one cup water.) If the chlorine taste is too strong, pour the water from one clean container to another and let it stand for a few hours before use. CAUTION: HTH is a very powerful oxidant. Follow the instructions on the label for safe handling and storage of this chemical.

Living near a river has its advantages

It is a good idea to have a wagon and some sturdy water containers to be able to haul water from the river, BUT it still must be disinfected/purified.