water

[Perris]

Our supply went off on Monday at 8am and was not restored till 2pm Thursday; it was a strong lesson on how dependent we are on this resource.

We have a water barrel to collect rain from the shed roof, and it was never more appreciated than over these last few days, but I was wondering if anyone here knows how to collect drinkable water, should such circumstances strike again (and since there were 9 bursts on this stretch of 70+ yr old pipe, it might well!) ?

 

[CrealCritter]

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Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[Okiepan]

If you have a rain barrel you might have to treat your water from certain bacterial grows ( insect larve) or get a water purifier and filter your rainwater.

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

Water Filters & Water Purifiers | LifeStraw

Everyone deserves access to safe drinking water. Our products provide the highest protection from unsafe water and positively impact on people and planet.

lifestraw.com

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

we have some of these 'just in case'

 

[tortoise]

There's a river through my property "just in case" It's a good 1/4 mile from my house or barn, so I hope we never have a "just in case" situation. Yikes.

 

[CrealCritter]

we have some of these 'just in case'

They work and work well. I proved mine on a hike in the Mark Twain National Forest. I packed in no water at all. Used mine to drink directly from steams and Mccormick lake. Did not become, I'll as a result. I recall reading many reviews similar to mine on Amazon.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[flowerbug]

we're at the spot where two large drainage ditches meet and they run almost all the time so we're not ever likely to be stuck with absolutely no water at all. the well is hundreds of feet deep and the water is good right from the ground. we can settle out some iron and calcium if we want but i drink it right from the tap.

with rainwater the thing you'd want to do is to collect it, let it settle for a day and then take off the middle layer of water and put that in jugs. if you are worried about bacterial issues from bird poos or insects you can use a few drops of bleach or iodine tablets and then put a lid on the jug. that should be ok for quite some time.

a small water filtration system could be set up using fine clean sand, activated charcoal and a large enough container that will give you the flow through rate you want to hit. rinsing the sand and activated charcoal first is important. if you have power you could also go the RO route but to me that is too much as it removes minerals from the water and those are important for the body.

what i do when the power goes out here is that i fill up buckets with whatever water is still in the pressure tank so we can use that to flush the toilets plus i'll fill up a few jugs of water from the tap for drinking. normally that will get us through several days. it is rare now that the power is off that long here. i also keep extra jugs of water in my closet for extended periods of time if we need them but as of yet (in 15yrs) i've never had to use them.

 

[Britesea]

Living in high desert, and especially through the last several years of extreme drought, I can relate. So far, our well has not run dry, although we had some scary moments this past summer. We switched to a dual powered pump a couple of years ago- electric or solar; I feel more comfortable since that's been in place. We live near water, but chronic problems with "algae bloom" make this not really a safe resource. (the neurotoxins released by the algae are not removed by boiling or chemicals. Activated charcoal is "believed" to work but no one is willing to guarantee that)
So I fill empty 2-liter bottles with water. Change them out every couple of years for fresh water because of possible leaching of the plastics. I try to have a month's supply, but it's getting harder to store that much now that our chicken population is growing.

 

[Alaskan]

I was wondering if anyone here knows how to collect drinkable water, should such circumstances strike again

I would add rain barrels everywhere it is possible.

Also, if you can add a pond, that is also great.

Does your house water come from a well, or the city?

If it comes from a well.... figure out how to use the well without electricity. That can be a hand pump, or solar or a gas generator.

Back in the past.... before plumbing, my ancestors took the time (in ROCK country, so the labor involved is impressive), to dig a huge underground cistern. I am not sure what the cistern is lined with. But they then stuck a standard well on top of the cistern. Standard, as in bucket on a rope with a hand crank/spindle to get the water.

The cistern was filled with filtered rainwater. The barn roof (and I think originally also the house), had gutters. The gutters funneled all water into a box. Screen on top (for leaves and twigs etc), then small rocks, sand, then charcoal. Then after the box the water went through a tile pipe into the cistern.

We have all of the camping gizmos to drink dirty water. We also have a wood stove on which to boil water. We have a pond... and of course we often have snow.

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

Our well so far has provided for us, we drink our well water and so do the animals and everyone is still ok.

I do try and keep some water in glass jars for emergency drinking and then some jugs for toliet flushing if needed. We are close to a river here, not on our property but there are a couple public accesses where we could grab some if needed.