Absolute Basics I: Water
Absolute Basics I: Water
This will be the first in a series of articles outlining the most basic necessities in any survival situation; how to secure access to them and what to do in the short, medium and long term to sustain them.
Whether you find yourself stranded in a remote location, or unable to use the mains water, access to clean water will be priority number one in any survival situation. Humans can only survive for around three days without water and need to drink a minimum of around 2 litres or 70 fluid ounces per day, making water supplies not just essential, but urgent.
In the short term, having a pre existing stockpile of bottled water and/or water purification tablets is an important step in any home based survival situation. However, given the aforementioned quantity of water that just one man must consume on a daily basis, the ability to collect water is equally important for medium term survival and immediately in situations where a prepared supply is not possible, for example getting stranded in a remote location. If possible, pre existing stockpiles should give you and your family enough water to survive on for at least a couple of weeks, in order to buy time to establish a longer term solution.
The most effective way to preempt preparations for the medium term in a home based situation is to dig a well on your property. This will ensure that barring the most extreme conditions, you will have a steady supply of water that is completely within your control is physically close to your dwelling. There is however, no guarantee that the ground below any given piece of land is suitable for water extraction, though a large amount of the earth’s land is, provided your well is dug deep enough. However, if you don’t have a well or can’t get one, don’t fret, as in most climates, methods such as rain and river water collection can generally supply you with sufficient quantities of water. These, unless from a clean spring, will need to be boiled before consumption, in order to remove bacteria and parasites, but and provided you have a source of wood to burn this should be relatively simple. Boiling water to sterilise also works with snow and ice, which can provide plenty of water during some seasons and climates. One important preparation to make for boiling water effectively is a large, durable metal pot that will enable you to boil significant quantities of water at once, thereby conserving fire making resources over boiling several portions daily.
If a survival situation arises away from home and you cannot boil water effectively, your top priority will become finding a clean spring and/or a suitable container to boil other sources of water.
Finally, in the long term and sooner in areas with prolonged seasonal droughts, your priority in regards to water will become maximising the effectiveness and reliability of your water collection and establishing a reserve of water. This will help insulate you from events such as periods of low rainfall which may impact your ability to collect more. Given the relative dependability of methods such as rain/river water collection, building up a reserve of supplies essentially hinges on your ability to sterilise and safely store an adequate number of containers. This requires a degree of preparation beforehand, by storing airtight glass bottles or jars, which are reusable and can be easily sterilised by boiling. The quantity needed will vary, but given around the amount of water necessary daily, it’s always better to over prepare than under prepare.