If you are planning on staying put during an emergency, than having water in your house put away is not a problem. Perhaps only finding space to keep it. If you are planning on leaving the premises during an emergency, then consider getting a water filter and some MP1 tabs for water desinfection.
One can't carry that much water around! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I was to mention that, you beat me to it. Most people, in America at least, have fifty gallons stored in their hot water tank. As for cleaning up, recently I was in a situation where I had to quickly take a shower, get dressed and go. However someone else was in the bathroom so I cleaned up using moist towlettes. Stock up on towlettes and you can save space or make your supply of water go further.

Also apply sunscreen, if you will be in the sun, and lip balm to reduce dehydration.

Jeanette Isabelle

Thanks for all the replies.

Wow there’s quite a lot to consider! I'm starting to see how one gallon per day per human is a minimum.

My dogs are both quite large, 33 & 37kg (approx 70 & 80lbs), so would expect their consumption to be significant.

As for likely scenarios, I think I am quite lucky. Singapore isn’t really near any fault lines so that pretty much rules out seismic activity. We are also sheltered by the huge land masses of Indonesia so hurricanes/typhoons would normally dissipate before they could ever get here. Singapore was completely spared in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and earthquake even though many place nearby were hit very badly.

My house is also on fairly high ground, so I don’t think flooding should be a problem if we bug-in at least. But then again nothing is ever 100%.

I am more worried about things like disruption in utilities.

Yes the koi pond would be a very large reservoir of water if need be.

I certainly hope I’d never be in such a dire situation to even consider eating the koi!

I like the idea of have rain barrels at each corner of the house but they would be the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.

> If you have a water meter outside your house then try taking a reading every day for a week and
> see how much you actually use.

That would include water for flushing the loo, baths and showers etc, and presumably making no effort to economise. For example, some people leave the tap running while they brush their teeth. Surely you wouldn't do that if you were subsisting on your stored water? Similarly they throw their cooking water away, even though it's drinkable (or can at least be used for flushing).

I have a check valve at the water meter so that once I pay for the water, they're not getting it back if their pressure drops! I also have a 40 gallon pressure tank so that the water will flow for a while even with the county supply off. I have two 30gal. drums of water, & am working on a pump system to pressurize the tank. The pressure tank is one of those with the rubber bladder separating the compressed air from the water. For 2 people,1 dog & 2 cats, we should be good for a month, although generator fuel will run out before that. Also, The suggestion about reading the meter to determine your actual water usage is a good one. Thanks to Brangdon! I will have to try that.

'I like the idea of have rain barrels at each corner of the house but they would be the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.'

ACKKK! No mosquitoes! I don't mean open-topped barrels. There are ways to to let only water in, and keep debris and bugs out.

There should be some info if you google 'rainwater harvesting'.

Sue

Beating the mosquitoes is easy, and it helps keep things out of the rain buckets other than rain- put a screen over the top. Say two layers of window screen, with layer of lightweight cotton knit between them. No bugs, no leaves, no dust, no bird droppings. And it will help filter out particulates washing off the roof. If you wanted to get really spiffy, two of those, with a centimeter of clean sand between them, to catch even more in the way of pollution and general nasties, plus it will help reduce loss through evaporation.

BTW, I should point out that only the sand is really my idea, my grandfather's father built something like this with flannel and chicken wire on his water barrels for the same reason. It worked at to a Vermont farm, it should work anywhere. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Correct. My point was that whilst 72 litres (or whatever the final calculation yielded) seems like an insanely large amount it would be worth comparing it to actual unrestricted usage as a sobering exercise.

We traveled Alaska in our motorhome this summer (a trip I would recomment to everyone!!!), and spent eight days boondocking in the wilds of Wrangell-St. Elias NP. Thanks to a run-in with a local (long sad story there), we lost almost all of our fresh water on the way in. We made the 20+ mile run back to the ranger station in our towed vehicle, and bummed enough water from them to fill our two hard sided and one soft sided five gal water containers that we always carry with us (we boondock a lot. I have rigged a 12v bilge pump to transfer the water from the jugs into our fresh water holding tank, saves my bad back). Using the weeds for "number one" a bit, we made that 15+ (probably no more than 20 gal total) gals of water last us the eight days with no problem, and that included making several pots of coffee, and freezing a lot of ice using tupperware containers in the freezer (gotta have our iced tea and evening toddy too). Of course the weather was not real hot, which can have a big effect on water consumption...

Running down the list in my head of the total liquid consumed in a typical day (excluding hygiene needs, just what I drank):

1.0 liter pre breakfast water
.75 liter breakfast (2 ea 375 ml servings)
.5 liter morning coffee (2 ea 250 ml servings)
.75 liter lunch (2 ea 375 ml servings)
1.0 liter afternoon tea (2 ea 375 ml servings)
.75 liter dinner (2 ea 375 ml servings)
1 liter evening refreshment

For a total of about 5.75 liters, or 1.5 gallons per day under moderate activity. Any exertion beyond normal, such as a trip to the jobsite or relocating my hooch, and you can easily add 2 liters or more to that level.

In a hot, dry environment under normal exertion, 2 gallons direct consumption would be the minimum.

Even here in Brisbane working in an office, I likely consume at least a gallon a day, though admittedly some of that is non-essential (the trip to the pub with the crew accounts for a liter a day 3 times a week) <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

It is looking more and more like Reverse Osmosis systems are coming of age finally. Globally RO manufacturing cannot keep up with demand, and there's no other suitable technology for desalinating or recycling water. Given the amount the Middle East is investing in Desalination plants, as well as other places such as New York City and here in Australia, where the drought has just been upgraded to a 1:1000 year cycle (meaning it is dangerously low), I can foresee the need for individual water treatment systems becoming a viable option soon.

Hard to imagine, but even Antarctica appears to be in the midst of a major drought!

I can foresee that instead of drilling wells, people will have atmospheric condensors pulling moisture out of the air to supply their households. Technology marches on I suppose.