Here in New Zealand's South Island we are told to store a minimum of 3 litres per person per day, for at least three days.

It may sound like a lot, but in fact it's a minimum, and really you should store more. 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. I am sure it is more than the 'insane' amount you have quoted.

One thing we are tending to do in our house is to store canned and pouched meals. These are ready cooked, and do not require water to be added, so the store of water goes further. This only makes sense for 'bugging-in', since they are heavy. Bugging-out should dictate dried food for lightness of load, but then you are presented with the problem of where to get water at your destination.

Our major likely disaster is earthquake, followed by flooding. Our water is stored in plastic fruit juice bottles in a shed away from the house (with a combination padlock, so there's no key to lose). Each bottle holds 3l, and we also have some smaller (1l) bottles. If we had to leave in a vehicle we could grab some of these bottles easier than, say, a 50l drum. If we were on foot then all we'd have is the two 1.5l bottles in each of our BOBs.

There has been talk recently about increasing the recommendation for how much water and supplies you should store to 14 days. This came about after a recent extreme snowfall that cut off some towns and villages in the South Island for nearly three weeks. The roads were blocked and power and phone lines were down.

Your situation will differ from mine, so you need to look at the recommendations and alter them to suit yourself.

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