Water in a Collapse Scenario

Water is absolutely essential to life. It doesn’t matter how many preps you have if you can’t provide safe, clean water. Clean and safe water is hard to determine. Microscopic organisms exist in most free-flowing water that can make us very sick – even kill us. There are several things that have to be considered when thinking about water:

• Turbidity – or suspended solids such as dirt
• Heavy Metals – unless you’re using storm water or are close to mining operations, isn’t typically a big concern in the United States
• Organic Compounds – gasoline, pesticides, herbicides, etc. These are typically not present in free flowing water (rivers, streams, etc)
• Pathogens – Protozoa cysts, Giardia, Cryptosporidium
• Bacteria – E.coli
• Viruses – most in the U.S. do not present a lethal hazard.

The minimum daily consumption is typically considered to be 1 gallon per person. This is for consumption only. For sanitation, bathing, toilet flushing, clothes washing and cooking (dehydrated food requires lots of water!) purposes - 4-7 gallons per person is considered to be the recommended requirement. To calculate how many gallons per day you need for your family, simply calculate: Number of People X Gallons = Gallons per day