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Water is extremely important for human survival. Lack of its availability for days may lead to dehydration, weakness and eventually death. Necessities of life, if readily available, are often taken for granted. Their importance is realized only when they’re not around.

Water is a significant preparedness item. Usually preppers think of storing food first when it comes to prepping. But importance of a thing is realized when a person thinks about a life without it. Humans can only survive 3 days without water. When starting off with prepping, the first thing to be kept under consideration is to store water. Drinking and non-drinking water should preferably be stored separately. On average an adult needs a gallon of water per day to carry out activities of life. Therefore, a family of 4 needs 4 gallons of water per day.

Firstly it is important to figure out how much water is actually needed. Usually for a small family 5 gallons a day is more than enough, one gallon for drinking while the rest of four gallons for bathing, washing, cleaning and personal hygiene. For a 10 day crisis approximately 40-50 gallons is needed for one person.

After calculating the exact amount of water one needs, the next step is to look for a safe place to store it. A gallon of water weighs around 8.34 pounds, also the place should be cool, dry and away from direct sunlight. To avoid contamination of water supply, pesticides and harmful chemicals should be removed from the surrounding area. Usually basement is the most suitable place.

Storage of water needs appropriate containers and plastic water containers are the best option for storing gallons of water. They’re cheap, and safe to use. Now, bacteria-resistant anti-fungal growth containers are also available in the market. They’re comparatively expensive and another drawback is that chlorinated water might corrode steel which will make water contaminated and unhealthy to drink.

Contaminated water is of no use therefore, contamination must be avoided no matter what. Tap water has a storage life of six months and to enhance its storage life there’s a tip usually mentioned i.e. water needs to be poured from one clean container to another clean container several times to put air back into it. Disinfectant pills are also available, keep a plenty of these pills along with other stored items.

To get an access to the water in pipes, shut off the valve of the water supply to your home. Place a container under tap and open the tap in cold direction. Then open hot side as well. This allows air to enter pipes and drains all the water from pipes into the container.

Survival is possible if all above mentioned points are kept in mind while storing water. Above all a person needs to know the amount of water to be stored, appropriate containers for this purpose and a safe place to keep this water supply. An individual should be well aware of the fact that only storing water is just not enough. The most important thing is to keep it clean and avoid contamination. For this purpose one should know the disinfection methods or keep disinfectant tablets along.