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During a crisis, survival is dependent on two essential needs (apart from oxygen): food and water.
Water is significantly more important than food because most individuals can go for weeks (or even months) without food but only 3 days without water.
As a result, it’s critical that you prioritize water preparation in your prepping efforts.
When it comes to water, there are two areas where you should concentrate:
1. Storage of water
2. Purification of water
Both are equally vital, and the strategies utilized will vary depending on the crisis and situation.
Storage of Water
Before you even consider surviving in the wild, you must first ensure that you have enough water at home.
In most types of disasters, such as floods, storms, terrorist attacks, and so on, taking refuge in the protection of your house is usually the best option. You will only evacuate if your home is threatened by a hurricane or another natural calamity.
As a result, you’ll need to keep gallons of water on hand at your home. For around 7 days, the amount of water you conserve should be plenty for your family, pets, and yourself (minimum).
To keep your water, you should ideally choose BPA-free, impact-resistant, and portable containers. The military’s Jerry Can containers are a near-perfect sort of container to use.
They will not corrode and will be fungus resistant because they are constructed of plastic. Their shape allows you to easily line them up along the side of a wall, and they can even be stacked with a rack.
It’s also vital to consider where you keep your water containers. If you keep them in the garage, you risk losing them if there is a flood.
Neighbors may see you hauling water to your house if the situation is dire. The next thing you know, your garage has been broken into, and all of your water has been stolen. People become desperate in tough situations.
As a result, you’ll want to keep the water indoors and above ground.
You can either carry a couple of Jerry cans in your van or utilize a water storage cube if you’re bugging out. The cube is more convenient because it is collapsible and includes a spigot.
When you’re camping near a lake, you can always fill up the plastic cube with water, filter it, and drink the water.
Another thing to keep in mind is that water stored in containers is frequently fairly heavy. If you don’t have access to a vehicle, carrying a full Jerry Can is extremely inconvenient.
If the hunger doesn’t kill you, the exhaustion from carrying these containers certainly will.
If you need to bug out in the bush and go by foot, you’ll want the water to be ‘divisible’ among family members so you don’t have to carry the heavy container about.
Survival water packs that you can ‘grab and go’ are the greatest solution here.
You’re fine to go if everyone in the family takes 5 to 7 packs. These are usually small, light, and easy to transport. They’ll easily quench your thirst at around 125 ml apiece.
A box of 64 pouches serves a family of five. The water in these pouches has a 5-year shelf life. You won’t have to deal with the trouble of water purification. As a result, you have water that is both portable and potable. Fantastic!
Purification of water
When obtaining water from the outdoors, water filtration is usually required. Lakes, wells, streams, and so on.
However, if a hurricane causes flooding in your location, the water treatment plants in your area may be damaged. This means that the tap water in your house is no longer safe to drink.
Even if you have access to running water, that does not always imply that you can drink it. In these cases, you’ll want to start by treating the water.
The best way to do this is to fill a container halfway with water and then purify it with a couple of water purification tablets.
Even if the water appears to be pure, it may contain germs, parasites, or other toxins that could make you very sick… And you certainly don’t want to get sick in a survival situation.
Indoors and out, water purification tablets can be utilized. If you’re going outside, you might want to start with a water microfilter. Make sure you cleanse the water after it has been filtered.
In some scenarios, you may not have access to a lake or stream especially if you’re bugging out. You may, however, come across a pool of water that appears sluggish and untrustworthy.
It’s possible that the prospect of drinking the water here makes you sick to your stomach. Ugh!
But what if you’re thirsty to the point of dehydration?
If you have a mess container and a camping fire or Coleman stove, you can gather this water in a saucepan and boil it first.
After the water has been heated, it should be allowed to cool before being filtered and purified… As a last resort, you should sip the water through a LifeStraw.
While you can drink the water right from the puddle with the LifeStraw, you should take a few extra precautions just to be safe.
If you’re camping in the woods, a gravity-fed water filter bag that you can hang on a tree branch will come in handy. When family members require water, they will be able to conveniently fill their cups/bottles.
You’ve probably figured out that water survival boils down to having enough clean, drinkable water on hand to meet your and your family’s demands. It’s impossible to have too much water on hand. Make a good plan and follow through.
Always keep in mind that you must not only be able to survive on your water supplies but also be able to process water from ‘worse than ideal’ sources and make it safe to drink. When it comes to water readiness, these two rules of thumb will come in handy.
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