How secure is your water source? Do you even know where your water comes from? If one day you turn the tap on and nothing happens can you get water from somewhere else?
Everyone who talks about being prepared stresses the importance of water storage. I don’t bother storing water. I don’t have to. My water comes from a well 50 feet from the house. I can lift the well cover and touch the water with my hand if I want. If that fails there’s an 80 acre fresh water lake 300 feet away. There’s also a never used well on my property across the road just sitting there.
You can understand why the drought in the west freaks me out. Water comes from far away and it takes some major engineering to get it to homes. It also takes a fair bit of energy to pump it to where it’s needed. People living in dry regions need water storage to deal with even minor interruptions. Should something major happen you might have to bug out before your storage goes dry.
There are always problems with bugging out. Now imagine the reason your water went dry is due to a major catastrophe. The same disaster that shut your water off might have shut down your road system. That would be nasty.
So what can you do? Move. That works but is it practical for you? Do you feel lucky? There are alternatives. Even the parched west has natural sources of water. Might be worth finding out about them and if you can access them in an emergency. If you are by the coast is might be worth looking into ways to desalinate sea water. People living on boats have been doing it for years with water makers. (reverse osmosis systems.) Even low tech solar distillers work. It’s even possible to build small scale solar stills with junk washed up on the beach. It might be a skill worth learning.
Something to think about before you get thirsty.
-Sixbears
Surprisingly lack of a sure water supply is one of the great drawbacks of life aboard a boat on sea water. RO systems are highly prone to failure and very energy dependent. Hell , I oughta know , seeing how I helped develop the systems which made it a viable means. Yet I never considered one for our boat.
ReplyDeleteEven though we have a backup,, artesian well which can be drank from and produces 2 gallons a minute , without a pump ! We still keep three 55 gal. Barrels full at all times. Just in case...Plus we are connected to city water.
BTW...I do have all the parts to build an RO unit stored out in the shop . Just in case lol
RO systems have improved but they are certainly less than an ideal situation. Probably good in the short term but there are a fair number of "consumable" filters and parts.
DeleteGlad your water is sorted.