SHTF Safe Water
Dr. John Woods 02.25.16
One of my closest prepper friend’s greatest survival fear is not having water. Ample water supplies would have to be the No.1 prepper issue before anything else. As important as an immediate need to protect oneself and family is a good, solid water supply. Even food can wait longer than water. This needs to be a top planning priority.
My friend “John” has a varied prepper plan to supply the water needs for himself, family, and animals, some of which are food sources. His overall SHTF plan is to bug in. He is also lucky to have a homestead property, while in a semi-rural neighborhood is isolated at the end of the street. He also has a large, metal shop building in the backyard to store equipment and supplies.
For starters John keeps 50 cases of bottled water stored in his shop building. Yes, you read that right, fifty cases. He rotates the water virtually on a daily basis and keeps taps on the so-called expired dates. My own concern for this water resource is that the shop is not air-conditioned and the water is in plastic bottles. Take that concern as far as you wish.
Next, he studied and asked around about drilling his own water well. He bought the tools, equipment, pipe, fittings, and a hand pump and sunk the well himself. I don’t believe he had to go more than 20-30 feet deep, but now he has all the water he can pump by hand. This was a very smart move I thought.
Now under emergency conditions when city or in his case county water is cut off, likely due to a power grid failure, he can supply water for his family to drink, cook, and bathe. He has water for his chickens, rabbits, and multiple dogs. He has a huge vegetable garden, so he can water it too, via the well. John has planned well and continues to fine tune his prepping work.
Lessons learned here is to maintain an on-going supply of drinking water. That might be cases of bottled water or milk jugs filled on a rotation basis. When a SHTF hits, we don’t have a clue how long essential services might be lost, so stock as much as you can. Get a water filtration system, too, for larger quantities of water to store. Water is vital. You have to have it.
