The first item on anyones list when discussing survivalist or preparedness items would be food and water. Water especially is an item that seems so common and practical that one would almost take the importance of water for granted and skip discussing it. But that alone is enough that we should find ourselves shouting to everyone we can get to listen the absolute critical nature of water treatment and storage. It seems ridiculous to have to tell anyone but trust me, in the world we live in today we can not take a single thing for granted on these life saving vital issues. In all of these blog topics think of the Japanese earthquakes or even Katrina and please realize that immediately after a crisis, human beings will begin needing water within four hours. A human being going 24 hours without water will feel the affects and ones life is threatened within three days without water! I can not tell you how important a good, reliable supply of clean drinking water is. Water is the difference between life and death. It is just that simple!One can not assume their will be an ample supply of clean drinking water. If you really need confirmation of this, then please find a Japanese or yet a Katrina victim and ask them. Four hours from a crisis and a human being will be wanting a drink of clean, fresh water. And that is the point, in a crisis most water supplies are contaminated from the surrounding environment. For instance, gas lines can be broken allowing petroleum products enter into drinking supplies. Lakes and streams can not be counted on as a clean, continuous source of water. If your fortunate enough to be located where there are some ground "springs" of water, then count your blessings and say a prayer of gratitude. You are indeed lucky but their is over three hundred million people in the United States and almost every one of them will not be next to a clean supply of water.
Stock all the cases of bottled water you can in a cool, dry place such as a basement or spare bedroom. I personally have accumulated 100 cases of bottled water and bedrooms have cases of bottled water stacked floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Every grocery day I add one more case of bottled water to this collection and plan to do so forever!
It is also important to know how to purify or "clean" water and yes their are some things you can do if you are "prepared"! In your preparedness checklist you want to have a few bottles of standard, household bleach or just Clorox. A single drop of household bleach will add enough chlorine to a gallons of water to kill all the bacteria in that water. This is a must have for all drinking water in a crisis that is not bottled!
Also, it can be handy to know of some easy ways of collecting water. Roof rain water is a good source of a water supply after and during a crisis. You may need to find some collection piping such as gutters to help facilitate the collection of water. Next, find some clean containers to collect the water. Clean five gallon buckets will be a good size so as not to be to heavy. Once you collect and store buckets of water in this fashion, you will need to find something that can seal the top of the containers. This water will need the addition of the bleach discussed earlier.
It's a good thing that subject (water) was so simple and "taken for granted". Next blog we will begin discussing food which will be even more involved than water.
