Maintaining an Emergency Water Supply
Most people aren’t aware of what it takes to keep a clean water supply in times of crisis. This article will help you understand what you need to do so you can keep your family healthy during an emergency. It will inform you about the reason you should maintain a emergency water supply just in case.
When any kind of emergency strikes, having an adequate supply of clean water for drinking, cooking, and hygiene has to be a major priority. Even though it may not seem probable you will ever have a requirement for an emergency water supply, you are unable to know when an earthquake, tornado, flood, blizzard, or other disaster will knock out your power supply and leave you without any way to access food or water for days or even weeks. Keeping an emergency water supply in reserve would then be an important aspect of your survival.
When planning for an emergency, you will need to have a gallon of water per user per day. Keep enough on hand to last at least three days. In fact, the preferred amount of emergency water supply to keep in reserve, per FEMA guidelines, would be plenty to last for two weeks. That would mean that a family of 4 should maintain 52 gallons of water in storage, plus more for pets. It is also recommended that this water be replaced every 6 months. The cost and the storage of this much water may seemingly be prohibitive to the majority of people. Therefore, try to keep at least 3 days worth of water in a cool, dark environment.
During an emergency, if water supplies should run low, don’t ever ration water. We all must have 8 cups of water every day for optimum health. Keep on drinking plenty of water. It could easily happen that by the time your supply runs out the utilities and water will have been restored. If they’re not, you can always worry about finding more water when your supply runs out. You can decrease the amount you have to have, however, by limiting activity and staying cool.
It is recommended that the emergency water supply that you store be commercially-bottled water. Make sure that it is still in its original, sealed bottle. Water that is open or empty milk jugs containing tap water aren’t the best choices when it comes to an emergency water supply. Keeping water in a bottle that was originally used for milk or fruit juice isn’t recommended. Milk protein and fruit sugars can’t ever be entirely washed from these containers, and if they are later used to store water, these containers will provide the optimum environment for bacteria growth.
