Do you have enough emergency water storage?

You can never know when an emergency will happen.

This article will discuss how much water you should store and some different options to store it.

On average, a person can only survive 3 days without water.

The rule of thumb is that each person requires about a gallon of water per day. 

Government agencies such as FEMA and the CDC recommend a 2 week supply of water stored for each member of your family. 

CDC Emergency Water Storage Information

I would guess that most Americans don’t have anywhere near this amount of water stored. I would also guess that some people would think it’s crazy to store that much water. However, it’s not guaranteed that your faucet will always work. If the power grid goes down for an extended period of time, your water faucet will most likely stop working in a couple of days after the backup generators at the water companies run out of fuel. Maybe your water still works, but what if your local water supply became contaminated somehow and it could take weeks before you can use your water again? There are many reasons you should store water.

So how much Emergency Water Storage should you have?

Given that you need a gallon of water per day for the recommended 2 weeks, that comes to 14 gallons of water per person.

A family of three would require 42 gallons.

I always recommend adding 10 percent to any food and water storage. If you have family, friends or neighbors that did not prepare, then this extra water can be provided to them. It would be best if this additional 10 percent of water is stored as something easily handed to them such as bottled water or gallon jugs of water. You don’t want to have to pump water out of a 55 gallon drum into some improvised container to give them.

So using the family of 3 as an example – 10 percent of 42 gallons is 4.2 gallons. A 40 count case of water like I typically buy is a little over 5 gallons. So this extra case of water for friends, family or neighbors would be just about right stashed away somewhere.

Two weeks of Emergency Water Storage is a great start.

However, what if the emergency turned into a situation where you had to go an extended period of time without water. If you run out of your 2 week supply, then you will need to find more water. If you live in an area that gets frequent rain or you have plenty of natural sources of water such as streams, rivers or lakes, then you should be able to obtain more water from those sources if you needed to. Of course you will need to filter and purify those sources of water. I will be publishing additional articles on how to obtain additional water and how to filter and purify it. 

What if you lived in an area that did not get much rain and you don’t have natural sources of water around? Then I would actually recommend you store 3 months of drinking water. I recognize that will not be feasible for most people. However, I recommend storing as much water as your budget and storage space allows.

Using the family of 3 again as the example, a 3 month supply of water would come to 270 gallons of water. That’s a lot of water. How could you store that much water? Let’s get into different water storage methods.

Water Storage Containers

As I mentioned earlier, bottled water, gallon jugs of water can easily be obtained from your local grocery store. 

The next level of water storage is containers that store 5-10 gallons of water such as an Aqua-Tainer. It holds 7 gallons and can easily be stashed in a closet for example. I have a few of these stashed around my home in various places. 

If you live in a small space, then Waterbricks may be a good choice. You can also get these from Amazon. I will put the link below. They are stackable and can be slid under a bed. If your bed is not off the ground enough, then you can get bed risers that slightly elevate your bed so you can store water underneath. If you use your imagination, you can probably find additional spaces to store water. 

There are many different types of containers to store water in. I will put links below to some other options below. You can also search Amazon for water storage to find other options that may suit your needs the best.

The last option I wanted to discuss is 55 gallon water drums specifically designed to store water. This may not be feasible for some people. But you have the room, this is a great option. I have one in my garage. I got this from Amazon and it came with everything you need. It included water treatment, a wrench to open and close the drum and a water pump to pull water out of the drum. Always buy these brand new. You never want to store drinking water in used drums. It may be possible that something harmful was stored in them previously. 55 gallon drums are one of the best methods of storing water for people that need to store large amounts. I’ve seen where people have built these very sturdy structures to hold several 55 gallon drums. Just search Google images for 55 water storage and you will see some of these structures people have built. Most 55 gallon drums like I have are not stackable. But you can buy stackable water drums. But they are quite a bit more expensive.

There is actually one more option I wanted to mention. That is to store water in a plastic container designed to fit in your bathtub. One brand is called a WaterBob. It is basically a plastic bag that can fit in your bathtub and you can fill it with water. However, you still have to have running water to fill. The use case would if disaster struck and you were worried the water could stop working. You could fill it then.

Storage location

Store drinking water in a cool dark place if possible. It will be less likely that something grows in your water. I typically rotate my stored water every 3-5 years. However, if the temperature gets hot where you store your water, such as a garage, then you may want to rotate that water more frequently. Such as every 6 months.

Disinfecting the container

Regardless of the container used, you should properly clean and disinfect it before filling it. To do this, mix one teaspoon of unscented liquid household chlorine bleach to one gallon of water. Then cover the container and shake it well, being sure to cover the entire surface of the inside of the container. I will leave a link below to the CDC website which has some good information on disinfecting your water container and other good information.

Removing water from the container

When removing water from the container to drink, be sure not to contaminate the water in any way. Never stick your hands in the container. It is best to pour out the water being sure not to touch the inside of the lid or container. With the 55 gallon drum, you will not be able to pour that out. You can use a water pump to do this. My drum came with a manual pump. You can buy electric ones also.

And the last thing I wanted to briefly mention is that you don’t just have to store water. You could also include soda, Gatorade or other drinks. Just be sure to rotate these drinks as these will have limited shelf life. Just refer to the best if used by date on the packaging.

I hope this information provided you with some valuable information for emergency water storage.

Amazon Links:
Aquatainer
Waterbrick
Bed Risers
Wurx Containers
55 gallon drum
55 Gallon Heavy Duty Plastic Drum Dolly
Stackable 55 gallon drums
Waterbob