By Joseph Parish
I recently found myself in a very significant discussion with a new survivalist who was greatly disturbed about not having an adequate supply of food and water. We sat and discussed an assortment of ways to accumulate survival foods and the diverse types of foods at his disposal for use in his emergency kits. Finally we began discussing his necessary water resources.
He acknowledged that the few bottles which he managed to purchase and store developed problems. It appears that he stores his emergency provisions in a metal backyard shed. During the winter of 2008 he had several store bought gallon containers of water freeze up on him. Naturally this caused the containers to split open creating quite a mess. In addition, I reminded him that in the summer time he also risks evaporation of his water in his storage shed.
Anyone who is familiar with me knows that I personally like to have backup plans in effect for any situation which I may be placed in. That also embraces my water storage as well. I don’t have 50 gallon barrels available to store my water in for an emergency. In that case I have to do the next best thing. In my emergency food room you will find some 5 gallon bottles of water, several cases of gallon jugs of sealed water and an abundance of individual bottled water containers.
I fully realize that this is not a sufficient supply by any stretch of the imagination but as I said I like backup plans, In addition to my ready water supply, I keep a large quantity of water purification tables readily available as well as several gallons of household unscented bleach.
Although this may look fine at first glance it really isn’t. I still do not have nearly enough water for emergencies. In view of this lack of water I decided to do the following. I keep a large supply of empty 2 liter plastic soda bottles in my garage. These stored two liter drink bottles work well for a number of survival uses, water being only one of them. Many people claim that water could be left in these bottles for as much as 10 years however, I will not take that chance with the safety of my family. I store these bottles empty. When storing plastic bottles check to make certain that they are not brittle or on the verge of deteriorating. Always save the caps that go on the bottles as well.
At the first notification of a possible emergency I quickly pull out the boxes of empty bottles and wash them well. Next I fill each of them up with fresh water. If the emergency does not materialize as predicted then it is no major problem. I merely use the bottled water that I made for my plants or for cooking. This is an excellent plan if you do not have space to store a lot of emergency water and I have found it excellent for supplementing my store bought supply.
Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish
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