[TekGreg]

Does anyone have good ideas on what to do for a SHTF water supply? Has anyone built cisterns, rain water collection systems or drilled a well, even if hooked to public water? If rain water, how do you filter for drinking? And this discussion is on water SUPPLIES, not just stores you have saved (bottled, bags, barrels, etc.) as I would like to get ideas on how someone would guarantee their supply long term. Rain catching seems to be the cheapest, as it can be done with food-grade 55gal drums and some PVC pipe. However, a well would be ideal but costly. Are there any other ideas for those that don't have a stream or river running nearby?

Water requirements are always assumed to be eight 8oz. glasses a day. However, this assumes a 150lb adult exercising only 20 minutes a day. During SHTF or EOTWAWKI, Gathering food, hunting, gathering firewood, farming, preparing raw food and all the other work will cause all of us to work hard more than 20 minutes a day. Also, the American adults I know fall nowhere near 150lbs average weight, so this water requirement is exactly useless. Therefore, I found an online water calculator here. When I plugged in my stats, I found out I need FOURTEEN 8oz glasses of water a day if I only work hard 20 minutes a day. That's 12.25 gals for a two week period, or 61.25 gals for a two month period. This is a LOT of water!

The other thought that makes a well more desirable would be the ability to sell/barter water to others. If you have a well, you can trade fresh, clean water for food, ammunition, clothes, whatever. Since a well is stationary, holding the property and defending it would be a top priority. I found this site which could make it cheaper if you wish to provide the labor, but would have to be done while public water is available or you have a portable pump.

Are there any other thoughts out there?

 

[W. C. Quantrill]

Better be drilling a well and getting a hand pump on it. If things go to pot, then you cannot trust water coming from a pipe.

Fellow here put in a cistern last year. Ten thousand gallons. He collects water off of two large roofs, and has it fixed so that in case of a fire that they can use it for initial knockdown while they wait on the big red truck to get there. It supplies soft water to his house, and he has no plumbing problems.

 

[TekGreg]

Better be drilling a well and getting a hand pump on it. If things go to pot, then you cannot trust water coming from a pipe.

Fellow here put in a cistern last year. Ten thousand gallons. He collects water off of two large roofs, and has it fixed so that in case of a fire that they can use it for initial knockdown while they wait on the big red truck to get there. It supplies soft water to his house, and he has no plumbing problems.

Wow, what a great setup! Any idea what he spent on it, just in general?

A hand pump is the best, but you can also get pumps with their own solar panel to power only the pump. great for areas without grid power or too far away to hook up to the house.

 

[HockaLouis]

Stream close enough nearby. A barrel is a cistern. Off of the roof. Pre-prefilter through nylon mesh and screen. Prefilter through coffee filters. Purify through Berkey filter. 1 lb. of Shock disinfects 9-10,000 gallons of water, costs a few dollars, and now's the height of the pool season. Store and rotate some water for dry times in big bottles (gallon jugs and 2-liter soda bottles).

Drink up.

 

[W. C. Quantrill]

He told me about it last week and I didnt ask what it cost, I figured it was more than I could afford. Ten thousand gallons is more than a semi load. That's a big hole, big container,,,he has it going into a good filter system, and has a pump that he can run off of the small tractor PTO in case he has to cut the electricity. I would imagine that it cost a couple bucks a gallon to put that in.

 

[c3shooter]

We have a couple of wells- with a bucket and chain backup. If you search, we have had a couple of discussions on water.

Your water needs will include not only drinking, but cooking, washing, sanitation.

Part of our gear that we have used a few times is a LARGE rigid kiddy pool. When not needed, it hangs flat against the garage ceiling on a couple of hooks. Tucked under a downspout. it holds about 500 gallons of rainwater for flushing.

For consumption, you CAN filter (look for the term Big Berkey in the threads) and you can use chlorine bleach. If we had concerns about our wells, OR if we had to leave the homestead, I have a Katadyn backpacker's filter and pump. About the size of a can of tomato soup.

 

[fireguy]

I have a well. I can power it with my generator. For long term, though I need to get a hand pump to drop in the casing so I wouldn't have to rely on gasoline and the noise a gennie makes. There is a spring less than 3/4 mile away from me that hasn't stopped running to my knowledge. A friend and I are planning on using that as our plan B. It is preferable to creek water that is a lot closer, but may have fertilizer or worse in it from run-off.
I have a large stock of coffee filters to prefilter sediment from collected water from either the spring or my metal roof on the house. Planning on using large plastic garbage cans for the roof water collection. Have a ceramic filter for final filtering.

 

[HockaLouis]

We have a well too. Electric pump operated. Intention is to use it only for the veggies when they want it...

 

[W. C. Quantrill]

I have 4 wells, one is electric, one is electric or windmill, and one is electric or manual and one is manual. I have a Winco 25KW generator on a trailer and I can put one of the light tractors on it and tie into our line at either of 3 places to run water or power either of the two farmsteads. If things go down there wont be any electricity either.

 

[hiwall]

In many parts of the country a well could be dug after SHTF as it would not take very long. Even here in desert i have found old dug wells that still have water in them. Surface water is near most people but it would require you to move to the water. Hauling water by hand even very short distances is very hard work. In a SHTF situation after a short while everyone would move close to water. Surface water usually amounts to a food source with fish, edible vegetation, and the animals that come to drink.

 

[Vikingdad]

I have my own well (water at 60 feet, pump down at 160) that is very reliable. There is a spring within 100 yards of the house and a hand-dug well that few people know about some 150 yards away. I know of several other springs nearby as well.

Ideally I would like to have a solar powered well pump, but the expense is too much. I do have a grid-tied solar PV system on the house but no battery backup at this point. Hopefully I will get it in before it is needed.

 

[TekGreg]

I have my own well (water at 60 feet, pump down at 160) that is very reliable. There is a spring within 100 yards of the house and a hand-dug well that few people know about some 150 yards away. I know of several other springs nearby as well.

Ideally I would like to have a solar powered well pump, but the expense is too much. I do have a grid-tied solar PV system on the house but no battery backup at this point. Hopefully I will get it in before it is needed.

Craigslist recently had an ad locally for reconditioned deep-cell marine batteries for around $50 a piece. Requires at least four of these 3-volt batteries in serial to provide 12-volt power, but at least it makes battery cost cheaper.

 

[TekGreg]

Stream close enough nearby. A barrel is a cistern. Off of the roof. Pre-prefilter through nylon mesh and screen. Prefilter through coffee filters. Purify through Berkey filter. 1 lb. of Shock disinfects 9-10,000 gallons of water, costs a few dollars, and now's the height of the pool season. Store and rotate some water for dry times in big bottles (gallon jugs and 2-liter soda bottles).

Drink up.

Never thought of Shock - that's a great idea!

 

[willshoum]

Water supply........

I had an uncle that had a cyprus water cistern back in the 50's, he always drank straight from the spicket. One day he found the water a little sweeter than normal, so he gets his ladder and checks out the vent on top. To his disgust he finds a ferral cat floating in the water........That and not to mention the millions of little squigly red worms in the water......There is no safe water unless it is boiled, but then you have to worry about chemicals...........The whole damn world is polluted.........

 

[primer1]

I had an uncle that had a cyprus water cistern back in the 50's, he always drank straight from the spicket. One day he found the water a little sweeter than normal, so he gets his ladder and checks out the vent on top. To his disgust he finds a ferral cat floating in the water........That and not to mention the millions of little squigly red worms in the water......There is no safe water unless it is boiled, but then you have to worry about chemicals...........The whole damn world is polluted.........

That's a delicacy in some parts of the world... cat tea!

 

[HockaLouis]

That's a delicacy in some parts of the world... cat tea!

Will, sweet water WITH protein? Shhh... Everyone will want some.

First, you don't have to boil the water -- just BRING IT to a boil. Done.

Third, you can purify that water with a Berkey including many chemicals.

Second, you can disinfect it with chlorine in any case.

Did your Uncle ever experience ill effects? The first sign of having parasites is simple things seeming out of order...

 

[TekGreg]

I knoe that everyone likes the Berkey, but in an EOTWAWKI situation, what do you do about replacing the filters? Or does it not have a proprietary filter? Would kind of like to have filters or pre-filters made from easily-obtainable materials, should Wal-Mart cease to exist.

 

[hiwall]

The Berkley is very good but you can buy 4 or 5 of these for the same price.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/CAMP-356
Or this one is only $30
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/CAMP-352
I'm sure there are many more also to choose from

 

[DrumJunkie]

I'm surrounded by several springs. and you can drink it right where it comes out of the ground. In fact they sell the same water that coems out not too far form me.
I'm still building a filtration system though just to have another base covered.

 

[TekGreg]

The Berkley is very good but you can buy 4 or 5 of these for the same price.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/CAMP-356
Or this one is only $30
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/CAMP-352
I'm sure there are many more also to choose from

Great links, Hiwall, thank you!