If the water inside your home is ever shut off, what will you do until it comes back on? Furthermore, how do you know when and if it will come back on? Having your own water supply is crucial for disasters like this. As a significant aspect of self-sufficient living, maintaining a water supply begins with collecting and storing your own water and having a purification or filtration system readily available. Additionally, a secondary source, such as a hand water pump, assists with keeping up your supply.
Water is essential in many daily activities, including cooking, cleaning, and washing. Water is also necessary in a disaster scenario. Not only is it helpful for hydration, but dehydrated and freeze-dried foods need water to be palatable.
Water storage tanks are one approach for having a backup source. Made out of food-grade polyethylene, storage tanks can collect or hold water for later use. The blue color used for many tanks blocks light out and keeps algae from building up inside, and in general, these containers need to be kept away from light. Additionally, water storage tanks, like your emergency food supply, should be stored in a cool and dark area and also need a non-porous barrier between it and the ground.
14 gallons is an appropriate size container for personal use. Families, however, should have 56 gallons available. In winter, however, containers should not be full. Water that freezes and expands can crack the tank, and to prevent this, containers should be 90-percent full in cold weather.
Water in a storage tank, however, is in a "raw," or untreated, state and is undrinkable. Microorganisms, such as viruses and bacteria, pollutants, and chemicals are likely inside the water and can cause sickness or death if consumed. Purification and filtration are two methods used to remove these particulates and can be used together.
Boiling and chemical treatments are two traditional methods used for treating water, but both have some drawbacks. Equipment and fuel for boiling are not always available in an emergency, for example. Chemicals, such as iodine and chlorine bleach, used for treating water, additionally, need to be used with caution. A very small amount of bleach can be added to a one-gallon container of water, but the chemical is poisonous in large amounts.
Portable and home purification systems, however, may use ultraviolet light to sterilize microorganisms. When water enters a purifier, it is exposed to a high-output, low-pressure mercury vapor lamp, which emits ultraviolet light. Viruses, bacteria, and protozoa take in this light, which halts their DNA multiplication.
Purification alone does not make water drinkable, and chemicals and pollutants are still present. Filtration can remove some of these leftover substances. Materials used for filters all have extra-fine pores – some no larger than 0.1 microns – which let water through and take out all free floating particles. Ceramic, which is used with some Berkey water filters, has the smallest pore size and removes all free floating particles and microorganisms. Glass, another material used, is better for short-term water filters. Hard-block carbon reduces chemicals and pollutants but is not adequate on its own as a filter. Instead, this material is used as a second- or third-stage filter for water filtration systems.
Two tubes are used for bringing in water and filtering it. One goes into the water source, such as your poly water storage tank, and another goes from the filter into a container that catches the drinkable water. A typical filtration system goes through four gallons of water per hour.
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Water, water everywhere but just a little is clean...this is very true. People all over the world are experiencing water scarcity. Everybody knows that two-thirds of the earth is covered with water, but how many of you know that only 0.5% of the total water on earth is fresh water. Either there is not enough water or the water is not clean. Unclean water can be the cause for so many diseases. |
