How Do You Plan On Getting Water?

I'm guessing 95 percent of people who live in cities and towns rely on water that is pumped to their homes by large electric pumps, similar to ones which operate sewage and water-purification systems. In my town of ~4000 it's the same; and while homes outside in the county -- like mine -- have a well, they operate by pumps running off the electrical grid.

The electrical grid is the one piece of infrastructure which is probably the most critical to survival. No electrical grid, no water, and that means you will probably die in three days.

How are you addressing this problem?

 

I just haul water in 5 gal. plastic jugs. I just dip it out of the creek. No need to treat it, it is pure fresh water, just like humans have been getting water for many thousands of years. I use a backpack in the summer to haul water and a sled in the winter.

And you don't really need electric, people been living for thousands of years without electric. I have spent much of the last 49 years in Alaska wilderness without electric.

 

I am very fortunate. We have ample water supplies that are very close. A creek runs through our neighborhood; probably not more than 50-100 yards from my house. We have two lakes that are walking distance. A river is a little farther away.

We have a small pond, and a large cement fountain on our property as catch systems, as well as a catch system (40 gallon drum) for rain water. We have methods to filter , boil, and purify when needed. We also have tub liners in each bathroom that will hold approx. 30 gallons. These would be filled first at the first hint of municipal water going down or being tainted.

Maybe a grid down situation is the only way I will find out, but there was a rumor that our house was built over an old spring. When they were digging the basement there were some water issues. We have a sump pump that does run occasionally. If the power were down for a prolonged period of time maybe I will go into the water business. I might have a more than ample supply.

I don't think water will be an issue in my area for the foreseeable future.

 

You three are smart and/or lucky; but I'd be willing to bet that even here you're a minority. No matter how easy it is for you to get water now, you might run into unforeseen problems with more and more people sharing -- or attempting to share -- your water supplies. And at least 9 out of ten people in the US do not have the access or knowledge to come up with potable water. When 90 percent of the city dwellers and half of the rural ones die, that will put a tremendous load on health-service industries, and if Mister Panicked Suburbanite doesn't become a problem for you, Mr. Typhus and Mr. Bubonic Plague will!

Back in the 1980's, I worked for a PV company, and designed and built quite a few installations on places like the Navajo Rez, Central America, and even one in Gabon. I've collected enough information on my well pump (inefficient AC), total dynamic head of my well (244 feet at 10 gal/hr) and priced out removal of the old pump, installation of a DC submersible pump, build and set up of a 3000-gal elevated tank, and the PV modules, along with the balance of systems (but no batteries -- I won't use them) and it comes to about $7500.

I hate to spend that kind of money on something I probably won't need, but if TSHTF, it could be a life-or-death situation for me, my family, my critters, and the garden.

 

Water really should be the very first prep, and have plans A, B, and C for how to get more.

We're pretty 'well' prepared in this regard. Three wells, the main house with a submersible Grundfos pump (110v, run from our inverter or the generator), a pump jack at the guest house (run by electric motor and generator now, but could be manually operated if needed), and the third with just a handpump (just had the leather cups changed and the screen replaced 2 years ago). Two 55 gallon rain barrels on the gutter downspouts, and a creek on public land about 150' from the house. A Big Berkey and a couple smaller filters just in case, and plenty of chems (chlorine and iodine mostly) to disinfect water if needed.

 

Me not lucky me looked around and chose this location to move to. I think most people choose to live where they know they will die in a serious SHTF event.

 

NOPE......chose this location (in part) because there are no humans here, plus there are dozens of pure fresh water creeks everywhere here.

 

We are fortunate to have a good well at a moderate depth of 110 feet. I have deep well bucket that I can use if SHTF and this could provide all the water we need to drink/domestic use when electricity goes away. We also have decent rain during the summer that provides for the majority of my agriculture needs. I have one stream that runs through our property that can supplement what I need if we have a dry spell. Also there are a couple springs that produce during the growing season. Water is pretty set, and it’s among the best tasting on the planet!

 

if you are away from home and have to make it home, or plan on taking off on foot...I think this could really help, and for less than $7.00
https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-J4...eiLV.43QUMckTag&slotNum=0&tag=shtfprep-epd-20

 

In Southern Appalachia, there is no shortage of rain and I can walk to a river not far from my house. If that puppy dries up, then this planet has died. Not a good thing.

Having gathered the water, how to purify it becomes the issue. I have both ceramic type (Katadyn) and charcoal type water filters. Speaking of which, I should go buy some more activated charcoal. And you can make your own charcoal. Charcoal gets the bad aromas out ... sorta kinda. Boil this. Keep a bunch of powdered drink mix to help make the water drinkable. Kids will not drink plain ol' water, therefore you MUST add Kool-Aid for the kids. Keep powdered tea, lemonade, grape, fruit punch, ... . Seal these powder packs in glass jars -- toss in desiccant packs and oxygen absorbers before tightening the lids.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=do+it+yourself+making+activated+charcoal&t=hk&atb=v140-1__&ia=web

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=water+storage+barrels+20+gallon&t=hk&atb=v140-1__&ia=products

 

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rain+water+gather+tarpaulon&t=hk&atb=v140-1__&iax=images&ia=images



Rain water run-off from your roof into guttering can be used on your garden. Some university studied whether this water contained chemicals from asphalt roof tiles and would such chemicals hurt anything. Findings were that the water contained precious little contaminating chemicals and what there was in the water didn't even begin to reach hazard levels. So, for gardening, gutter water is just fine. Just don't flood your garden, for heaven's sake -- you gotta brain, use it.

Do NOT go and pay way too much money for rain barrels. Lord have mercy! Seen those prices?! Holy sh##! We just bought the cheapest we could find. Garbage cans may be impregnated with insecticides, so read literature before purchasing. You can use galvanized steel enclosures that are used by ranchers to feed their cattle. Those things are built well and have standard water take-offs that are threaded for water hoses.

 

I have a spring and a creek on my property that would supply water 12 months out of the year . I can understand people choosing to live where water would be lost in a prolonged loss of electricity , seems most folks plan to used a motorized vehicle to reach a water sustainable location . one problem with this plan most "if they did reach their desired last stand location "would find a hoard of desperate starving people there . Anyone in a starving for food squatter town would find it difficult to survive , being exposed to desperate two legged animals . I would expect such desperate people clusters to be found under bridges and by lakes . Many would sit and starve in their homes from lack of food and water , others will starve or be killed in the squatter towns . The US governments estimate of a ninety percent die off in 12 months if electricity was lost I think is a reasonable estimate .

 

Agreed. A big problem would be these knuckleheads polluting the water source, starting fires, and causing other mayhem. One of the reasons I want to be as isolated as possible from other humans.

 

I don't see water ever being a problem for me and mine. We are surrounded by lakes, ponds, rivers and springs in the wet season. I have a free flowing spring in my front yard right now. I could dig a well there very shallow and easy. We also have a big cistern that collects water off the roof. 3" of rain will fill it up ( I think it is 2500 gallons) and we average a little over 30" of rain a year here. LOL, Harvey dropped three feet on us and five feet on Houston so last year we had double our average yearly rain fall.

 

I live "in the country" but still have "city water" from a rural system.

I have a well that uses a 120 volt pump that plugs into an outlet so it can also be powered by a portable generator.

I also have a gas powered pump that can pull water from a shallow well or a pond or stream

We've had power outages of up to 5 days but never lost our water.

My well is now only used for outside purposes and isn't plumbed into the house, but a few hoses and some fittings could change that if needed.

 

What is the names of both your pumps. This is one item I still need to get...a water to get water out of a well that I can carry with me, no matter where I end up.

 

The gas pump is a "Pacer" similar to this one:
https://www.amazon.com/PACER-PUMPS-...s&qid=1551219731&s=gateway&sr=8-9&tag=mh0b-20

The electric one is just a standard 110 volt well pump wired to a plug instead of being hard wired. The same could be done with a 220 using the proper plugs.

The motor will have a tag telling you the wattage required. You'll need a generator that has about 3 times the running wattage listed to withstand the starting surge.

Many small, low powered pumps will draw water from shallow wells (25 feet or less).
You may need to use foot valves to keep them primed.

 

This is often called a Sillcock key. Yes. I keep one in my car, and a few more in my BOB,s. IMHO it is one of the most neglected items. Everyone should have them.

 

What is a Sillcock key and what does it do???

 

Like others we're pretty lucky in that we get about 40" of precip a year in a mix of rain and snow. Last years heavy rains broke records and we ended up with over 60". We are on a well, actually (2). Our house uses a geothermal pump and dump system so one well is the draw well and is used for our domestic water as well as the geo system. the second well is the dump well, so once the water goes thru the geo heat exchanger it's pumped to the dump well. The dump well is a well to the aquifer but has no pump. The head height in both well is around 60' and the total shaft depth is around 120'. I have pieces of 4" PVC pipe and fittings to make a dipper if we need it and I can pull from either well.

In short term situation we have (3) 60gal hot water tanks we could pull water off. 2 are used for hot water and the third holds preheated hot water off the geo system that feeds into one of the actual heated tanks.

Outside we have an in-ground pool that holds around 25K gal of water and then there are 2 smaller in ground ponds that probably hold around 400 gal each.

I have a small rain catch system off our roof that I plan to enlarge this summer. Currently I use it to water the garden. In a full on SHTF I plan to also divert overflow off of that to both the pool and ponds. We have various ways to boil it and I have the components to make a large sand and charcoal filters also. When we get the money I plan to get a Berky filtration system.

Last ditch there is a small stream about 300 yards from the house that we could get water from but there is a lot of field and dairy pasture runoff into it so would definitely need to filter and boil prior to using and even then unless I ran it thru a berky or other water purifier I'd be hesitant to drink it, maybe more for washing or untreated use it to flush the toilets.

 

It is a small cross shaped box wrench type tool that fits 4 different types of water valve commonly used in domestic water supply. A bit like a radiator bleed key. They can even open some train doors.

 

I live in Wales, our area supplies drinking water to half the population of the uk, getting water is not the problem.

 

I live in the great lakes area, lots of water thus far.

 

I know, I was going add that all water would need treatment but thought that could go without saying in a survival forum.

 

I'm not sure, I live in the northern great lakes and have not heard about that.

 

I did a web search on this and the contaminated fish issue is a concern.

 

Anniew: A Sillcock key is a 4 way key used to turn on a faucet. Many commercial buildings have spigots/faucets on the outside, but they don't have a traditional handle like the ones on your house. The handle is removed so only the company has access.

The sillcock key is usually what you use to turn the water on and off. The four sides are used dependent on the size of the spigot.



Hope this helps. Next time you see an outside spigot with no handle it will make sense.

 

I'm a master plumber and have a few keys laying about along with curb keys and fire hydrant keys.

 

I'm fortunate enough to be located near a river, and a few lakes. I could easily haul truckloads of water from and to my abode. Although I think once I move i'll get some barrels to store rain water, just to have in case of a SHTF scenario.

 

I have barrels under the eve of my house to catch water for use of non-drinking purposes . A ram pump is in the stage of getting built to pump water up a hill from the spring . It is actually pumping but needs some fine tuning . It is pumping too fast and is outpacing the incoming water source . We will be back on that project in about three weeks . Also have a year around creek . I am preparing for a E.M.P. therefore am not depending on any vehicle to fetch water . I have a solid rubber tire hand cart ready for water hauling , along with water containers to put on the cart . I am looking at long term prepping .