Water

 Today's topic is all about water and to be honest I NEED A BIG SLAP AROUND THE HEAD!! In my last post I asked what we really needed to survive etc. The one thing we definitely need and I missed off the list was WATER! How I missed that, I will never know considering I had just been in the garden cleaning the water butts out. Anyway, consider me well and truly SLAPPED and here is a whole topic on water to make amends.
Water is vital to life, YOUR LIFE, My life, everyone’s and everything’s life. In the western world, we turn a tap on and hey presto clean safe water usually comes out. In the UK, we have a privatised water system where the water companies have shareholders and have to make a profit for them whilst providing water for the populous. My personal view is that water should not be in the hands of a private company, which, as a first priority makes profits in order to give those dividends out to the so called "investors". The flip side of this is that, again, in the UK, we have some of the cleanest water in the world and in general, it is affordable. The big drive so far is to get every household onto water meters so you get charged by the cubic metre or 1 tonne of water used. This makes you look at your consumption like the other utilities of gas and electric but you don't need gas and electric to exist, water you do. 
Anyway, why should you be concerned about the water supply? I've already said it is safe, relatively cheap and ready at the turn of a tap but what would happen if it wasn't any of these things.
If it was dirty water, if it was contaminated, expensive or intermittent? What would you do? 
At present, each water company has a legal responsibility to provide every person in a given area with 10 litres of clean water per day. End of. So, if your water supply is going to be off for more than 18 hours you will either get a bowser of water in your street or bottled water. The thing is the water companies only need to supply it to a given area. What happens to it then is not regulated so, as happened in 2012 a lorry full of 25000 litre bottles of water was taken to a car park ready for local distribution. A gang of armed men stole the lorry, drove it off and then stole the water and returned the lorry to the road network and locked the doors. The water company did not have to replenish the water that was stolen.
So what would you do? The obvious answer is to store your own water the same way as you would store some extra food. Also, this is not being paranoid or an American Doomsday Prepper or the likes, it is sound government advice taken from the www.gov.uk website which states that you should keep enough food and water stored in your home to last you at least 3 weeks. This linky is from the F&CO and applies to those Brits that may have to live through a "Hurricane Season". Although we don't get hurricanes much in the UK maonland it is a good source to show you what to keep as emergency stocks. The water element states at least 1/2 a gallon of fresh water per person per day. More water will be needed for sanitation and washing so this link advises you to store other water which could be a pond in your garden or water barrels so you have water available that could be sterilised for personal, clothing and household washing. 
If your water supply was cut off for whatever reason how long could YOU or your LOVED ONES survive? The answer varies upon each persons needs but it is generally thought of as three days without water and you are dead.
If there is a flu pandemic then the staff at the local water company might be ill and thus your water is either not treated properly or is switched off.  A flu pandemic can and probably will last over 90 days or 3 months.
If a terrorist wants to infect a lot of people in a short space of time then the water supply is a key route post water works.
Health can be compromised without good hygiene, many foods needs water to be cooked in or with and what would us Brits do without our marvellous cup of TEA??
Pets need water also. Did you know an average medium sized dog like a Red Setter, Labrador or Vimarana (Doberman / Greyhound cross) all drink up to 3 gallons of water a day!!
In order to ensure you are not to go without your water you need to start looking at storing water TODAY. It would be really nice to have an IBC or two that holds 1000 ltrs or a cubic tonne of water in each but to start with today have a look around your home. You can fill up bowls and dishes immediately, now, this instance. At least that way you have water if your tap runs dry in the next 20 minutes. Also, start looking at ways of keeping water in “pop” bottles. These are generally 2 ltrs in size and once full can be dropped from a good height and not damaged.
10 pop bottles of water is good, 15 would be better and that 30 ltrs is what one person should be storing for 1 days use and that does not include the toilet or washing machine or dishwasher.
Plastic milk bottles are also OK for short term storage but make sure these are washed out thoroughly.
You can do a search on the WWWeb to find suitable containers that you can afford and store water in them. You can use water butts in the garden and even a garden pond if need be. This topic is too big to be covered in one sitting especially as I mention storing water outside of the home in the garden or pond.
Therefore, I will be revisiting this topic later this week with reference to usage, storage methods and conditions, Purification or filtration, ( do you know the difference??).
As for today, if you are looking to buy storage containers MAKE SURE THE CONTAINERS ARE FOOD GRADE USE.
Also, look for new containers. Many available are “reconditioned” or cleaned and refurbished. They are OK if you are storing non foodstuffs like diesel or lubricating oils but for food stuffs and water you really don’t want to be taking the risk, well in my opinion you don’t and as for that I’ll wrap up my thoughts for this episode of Tales from the edge of town.  

Take care,
Alan