Our blog focus for October is water. Have you ever thought about all the ways you use water? Of course we need it to drink, but there are so many more ways we use water in our everyday lives that are worth storing water for. Here are 12 ways water will save you in an emergency situation.
We’ll start with the things you can use any water for (purified or not):
12. Flushing toilets. Yes, your toilet can flush without the water supply working, but it does need water to do it. You can pour water into the tank and flush with the lever like usual, or pour the water directly into the bowl (slowly) and gravity takes over and all the goods go down the pipes. This is probably only practical for short term emergencies, as flushing uses a good amount of water.
11. Washing clothes. Not too high on the imperative list, but a very nice morale boost.
10. Watering animals. If you’re planning on keeping livestock, chickens, pets, etc. alive, they’ll need water to drink.
9. Watering a garden. Depending on your location, there probably isn’t enough ground water to just keep plants alive on their own. Supplemental watering can mean the difference between harvesting a garden or putting seeds in dirt and having nothing happen.
8. Keeping food cool. Check this link for how to use water, sand, and a couple of pots to make a pot-in-pot cooler also called a Zeer Pot.
7. Keeping people cool. The same evaporative cooling technique can help keep people cool during hot weather. Use the water to dampen clothing, hats, neckerchiefs, etc. Or use a spray bottle to dampen skin and allow to air dry. This works best in a dry environment–not so well in high humidity.
For the next six, clean, purified water is best.
6. Personal hygiene. This one’s kind of borderline on whether you need clean water or could use any water. I’d wash my body and hair with unfiltered stream water, but for things like brushing teeth you want clean water. If you’ve ever been camping, you know how a good washing of hair, body, etc. can lift your whole mood. Maybe personal hygiene isn’t at the top of the list for water usage, but it can sure make a person more pleasant to be around.
5. Wound care. Injuries need cleaned. Even little scrapes can turn into a big deal if they’re left dirty or cleaned with contaminated water.
4. Washing food. Keeping food clean will keep everyone healthier, and if there’s no doctor, keeping yourself healthy will be vitally important.
3. Cooking. Soups need water, bread needs water, in fact, most “from scratch” meals use some kind of liquid–usually water. If you are able to use your canner for preserving food, you’ll also need water for that process.
2. Rehydrating all your dry food storage. Any foods you have stored that are dehydrated, freeze dried, or powdered will need water to reconstitute them. Dehydrated vegetables, freeze dried meats, powdered milk including infant formula, and more all require water to be consumed.
1. Drinking. You can live three weeks without food (I don’t know who came up with these numbers because I really don’t think I’d last that long), but only three days without water (again, I’m pretty sure I’d die faster than that). Staying hydrated keeps your body and mind functioning. Make sure the water you are drinking is clean–you don’t want to get super sick or die because you drank contaminated water. You cannot afford to not have clean water to drink in an emergency.
Now we know the many reasons we’ll need water in an emergency and can see how important it is to have an emergency source of water. Over this month we’ll be covering various aspects of water for emergencies including storage and purification, so if you have any particular topic you’d like addressed, just send it over to me or put it in a comment.
Keep preparing! Angela
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Switch to a composting toilet. Flushing with water is a waste anyway, especially if water doesn’t come from the magic pipe anymore.
ankle, a composting toilet (a bucket and some sawdust) is on my list of items to prep in case the sh*t really does hit the fan. I’m not ready to use it daily yet (though my brother raves about it), but would be down for it instead of wasting my water supply when it comes right down to it. Thanks for the reminder.
That was an important reminder of one of the most important keys to survival. Most posts focus on guns and food. They are important but, water, shelter, sanitation, first aid are all equally if not more essential to survival.
I did a test of using my water supply no tap water for 4 days and I can tell you 1 gallon a day is not nearly enough after a couple of days. Water is very heavy and it takes a lot of physical energy to move and heat even at a gallon at a time!
Thanks for this list!
Good list!
As important as water is, it’s a good idea to fill your bathtub with water at the first sign of a disaster. You can also use the water in your toilets, hot water heater, etc, if necessary.
Joe
Only eat if you have water to drink. Digestion requires water. If you eat without water, it will dehydrate you further.