Storage of your Drinking Water in an Emergency
By Joseph Parish

Most survivalists if solicited as to the primary item which they would store up on for an emergency it has to be water. You should always plan for at least one gallon of water per day per person. With this requirement for fresh drinking water in an emergency you should have some idea as to what you can store that water in.

You could rush to the store and purchase the gallon jugs of water similar to those which milk products come in. These fragile and thin jugs tend to leak after a couple of years. I personally have had them leak within 6 months of purchase so I have slowly eliminated those type of containers from my emergency food storage. I do not even use them for my dry foods such as beans or rice.

Several people have commented that they have tried using the jugs that windshield washer
fluid comes in. They claim that if you let them sit idle for a month and then replace the liquid that they are safe as ever to use. They state that this procedure gets all the blue liquid out. I personally may be too cautious but I would not recommend this method nor would I use it.

The best method to use is the one that works successfully for you. Some people will use barrels to store their water in while some will use the five and seven gallon plastic jugs. I personally use the two liter soda bottles. A word of warning here is do not keep these bottles for any extended length of time unless you plan to put a few drops of bleach in each. Try to refresh the water contained in the bottle on a scheduled basis.

You should not use any type of jug that did not originally have a food substance in them. These containers are not food grade and are not safe to use for your drinking water. Keep in mind that not all plastics are food type plastic. Toxins from the plastic can leach into your water and quickly poison your family members and yourself. The rule to follow here is Be careful. As an example Bleach bottles should not be used for water storage.

Even though there are many plastic bottles that you can not use for drinking water there is no ruling which would forbid you from using them for other liquid purposes. You could safely use empty soap jugs for washing water storage. Since it already contains remnants of your favorite laundry detergent in it there is no problem here. They also seem to store fairly well.

The new style bottles which have spigots attached would be useful for releasing small amounts of washing water as you need it. This is a great product in the event of a power outage. Although it is not an excellent source for disinfection type washing it is a splendid item by itself to lightly wash your hands with.

Copyright @2008 Joseph Parish