I live in Colorado so one of my worries is water. Are there any rules of thumb for water per person? I looked up some stuff but it is way out of line, multiple showers per day, yadda yadda yadda. So how much should a guy have in storage for long term situation? What kind of tank or storage method are you using? How do you keep it fresh?

In the new dutch compain to educate people about prepardness, they recommend 4 liters. Which interestingly generated complains from a watercompany, because apparently there is a law that says you should have 3 liters...

But in reality, the amount per day depends on your needs:
2-3 liters (more in hot conditions) for comsuption.
0.5 liter to brush your teeth.
2-3 liters for cooking and washing food.

This means no shower, no washing hands, no water to clean anything, nothing to flush your toilet, etc, etc. A shower takes about 43.7 liters and flushing toilets for one person a day 35.8 liters (dutch average). This does not include washing hands, washing clothing, etc. So how much luxeury do you want when something is going badly? Answer is up to you.

New Dutch campaign?? Haven't heared of it.

One alternative to a flush toilet is a composting toilet. The cheap-but-sanitary way to handle this in an enclosed space is 2 5-gal buckets, one with a toilet seat mounted on it and the other filled with something naturally absorbant/drying (sawdust, sand, fine shredded leaf litter, even kitty litter if thats all you have on hand (not sure how compostable that is though) or a combination). Each time you use it, just cover with a healthy scoop from the other bucket. Dump the bucket when full. If you're in a long-term situation you may want to check out the book 'Humanure' and see how you can use the waste as fertilizer or at least how to keep the dump site from attracting attention/smelling.

it started 2 weeks ago, the checklist with the recommended kit is really short and basic. But it's a start and making them longer and more complicated might turn off dutch people that aren't used to the prepardness thing. The compagin is called "denk vooruit": http://denkvooruit.crisis.nl/

Thanks for the info. I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of your projects, PC2K. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I know we all bash FEMA quite a bit, but here's a link to their suggestions:
http://www.fema.gov/plan/prepare/water.shtm

Doug's got great information here on ETS:
http://www.equipped.org/72hourkit.htm

Both recommend a gallon per person, per day. FEMA goes on to mention that a normally active person needs at least a 1/2 gallon per day just for drinking.

I toyed with keeping water in a large Reliance water jug and rotating it every month. That became a real pain in the you-know-what. Then I tried the Nalgene bottles and Platypus water bladder route. Finally I came to realize simplicity is great.

I went with mostly 0.5L bottled water. Sure, it can get somewhat expensive. But I try to buy in bulk from Costco, Wal-Mart (ugh), or on sale at the grocery store. I've found that not only is it easier to rotate, I also drink more water day to day, which is a good thing. Especially in the hot summer. Plus, with the half-liter bottles you can easily hand them out, throw them in the cooler while camping, put in your backpack for a quick hike (yeah, I know, not really leak-resistant. Nalgene's rock!), or whatever else. They also keep nice and cold in the fridge.

Also, I've picked up a few of the 1 gallon Arrowhead jugs at Wal-Mart that are all of $1 each. They make a good augmentation. For $3 you can have enough water for 72 hours for 1 person. Not bad at all.

one idea for storing water and keeping it fresh is to invest in an inline 100-300 gallon water tank. You plumb it into your water system in the house between the water main and the rest of the house so water circulates through the tank. If water stops flowing you still have a decent supply of water and it is rotated automatically for you. Around here at least if you watch the paper you'll occasionally see water tanks for sale or for free.

I actually have around 20 cases of the 1 liter bottles for emergency drinking that I rotate at home from Costco.. I also have a few .5 liter cases to fill the cars with when we go out.

Then I have 7 gallon containers (10 of them) with the idea they would be used for non-drinking use.

I thought "humanure" wasn't the best fertilizer? Isn't it more toxic then cow manure?