Water Storage

[Chiquita]

I am not an alarmist, however, we live in a world when you never know what is going to happen next. I have been reading about how much water we need to have in case of an emergency. What I would like to know is what is the best way to store it? Is it in gallons as they come or is there a specific type of container that keeps the water safer for longer periods of time especially when you are going to keep large amounts. Any advice will be appreciated.

[fresh]

I would not worry about being an alarmist. We had a hurricane here that left a lot of people with no watter for 7 days. Now people around here are finding new ways to save watter. I use large sterilized steel drums to store water in.

[Pat]

Food quality plastic drums are sometimes available at reasonable cost. I bought some 50 gal ones for $5 that originally had Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce in them. It took some rinsing but they eventually lost their "flavor." Read the label on the bottle of a good brand of chlorine bleach like Clorox (non scented) and follow their recommendation for super chlorination to keep the water biologically safe over a protracted storage period. The bleach chemical can be removed with a water filter such as Britta or similar (activated charcoal type filter) just prior to consumption and will be safe and taste fine. This will give you safe inexpensive bulk water storage capability.

Another thing for your preparedness arsenal is a water purifying filter or pump/filter such as is sold for back packing/camping. This will let you use pond water or similar for drinking/cooking. There are small hand operated units with which you pump water from a creek or pond through a filter into your container. This removes any biologics from the water but you need to use it on water that is chemically safe, i.e. the filter doesn't remove dissolved solids. They wouldn't remove arsenic for example but would remove disease agents. There are hand operated reverse osmosis pump units that remove just about everything you would encounter. You need to filter out what a conventional filter can remove to avoid plugging up the RO filter.

It is only practical to store so much water, say several hundred gallons... and then what? Stored safe water is very convenient but what to do when you run out in a protracted emergency or you need to relocate and can't haul many 50 gal drums with you. The back packing water filter/pump thingy is very inexpensive, takes little storage space and is a great alternative to risking your life.

Pat