In a survival situation, water is one of the most crucial things you’re going to need access to. As a rule of thumb, people can go weeks without food, but only a couple of days without water.
As such, being able to get clean water reliably is a major part of any survival prepper’s plans. As a beginner, it can be intimidating – but water collection and storage is much easier than you may think.
By following some basic steps, you can keep many gallons of water for years on end, and will be sure to have an ample amount of drinking water should an emergency survival situation arise.
Setting Up and Using Rain Catches
If you live in an area where it rains frequently, you may find it easiest to use water collection barrels in conjunction with a rain catch. Before you start using rain catching methods, you should check your local laws, because some areas don’t allow it.
There are a few different ways to use rain catches as well, depending on the type you buy. One of the easiest ones to buy is one that attaches to your gutters, because all of the rain that runs off of your roof will get collected into any water-safe barrel.
You can also get rain catches that use a large funnel on top to divert rain directly into the barrel. With both this method and the gutter method, you’ll need to purify your water for storage, so that it’s safe before drinking it.
This is because there can be bugs, bacteria, and other debris in the water coming off of your roof and gutters, and even with the funnel method, you’ll have bugs flying in from the opening at the top.
Typically, you’ll want to filter your water as well as purify it with one of a few different methods. From there, you can store it in separate containers, or transfer it back to the main collection tank and seal it off.
Most people who store water prefer hard plastic containers that are easily stackable and can be rearranged. This makes indoor storage convenient, but you’ll want to find durable containers that are BPA free.
BPA is a potentially hazardous chemical found in some plastic containers, and it leeches into water over time, making it a poor choice for water storage. Most modern water containers omit the use of this chemical, though it’s a good idea to check.
Collecting Water from Natural Sources
As you would expect, there are tons of natural sources of water in the wild that other animals use constantly to drink from. Whether it’s a visible source of water or one trapped underground, there are ways to collect and safely drink it.
First, you should try to avoid salt water for drinking water. Ocean water can be purified, but it’s far more difficult than getting good freshwater. Look for things like rivers and springs instead of oceans if possible.
As a rule of thumb when dealing with freshwater sources, running water is typically cleaner than stagnant water. This means that the water you get from a creek or stream should be fresher than that of a pond or a puddle.
If you can avoid it, it’s best not to drink straight from any natural water source, because even the cleanest looking stream can have harmful bacteria in it. Instead, you should look to collect it and purify it.
You can use a portable filter straw to drink straight from these sources, though. If you have two of them, one can be used on the go to stay hydrated, while the other is used in a full purification and storage setup.
Don’t discount water found underground, either. Some caves have natural reservoirs of water in them, and for centuries people have dug wells to pump water out from underground.
Extracting water from these sources is more difficult, but many believe it to be worth it, because the water taken from wells is usually very clean. If you can boil it first, and let it cool before drinking it, that’s much more preferable, though.
In more extreme environments, it can be difficult to find natural water sources, but not impossible. For example, you might not be able to find a good flowing water source in an area that’s always freezing cold.
In such areas, however, you’re likely to be surrounded by snow. Snow and ice can be taken and melted down by boiling it, giving you access to clean drinking water. Be careful not to eat snow and ice outright, though, because it can make you even colder.
In desert areas, you might think it hopeless to find water at all. While it’s certainly difficult, you ought to seek out any areas with vegetation of any kind. This includes cacti and trees, even if they’re sparse.
Many cacti hold water within their branches and in their fruit, and where there’s any amount of flora, you can be sure you’ll find some form of water. Sometimes you may come across an oasis – an area with plenty of water.
Using Filters for Water Purification
No matter what method you choose to collect and store water, you’re going to need to purify it to make sure it’s safe to drink. One means of water purification is by utilizing filters, either premade or by making your own.
Filters work by using microscopically small sieves that catch larger things like amoebas and bacteria, while letting water molecules pass through. Often times, they use a series of different sized filter media which catches different hazardous microorganisms.
There are plenty of different sizes of premade filters that you can get. For example, there are portable filter straws that allow you to drink straight from any water source that you come across. These make for great additions to any daypack or bug out bag.
Sometimes, those same filter straws can be connected on either end to a hose, and by passing water through it, it’ll all come out clean on the other end. This allows you to use it as an in-line filter when transferring water from a collection barrel to storage.
Some water filters work via gravity, with the dirty water being put at the top. Slowly, the water trickles through the filter, leaving behind impurities, and coming out clean through the bottom.
If you have access to the right materials, you can even create your own water filters. It often involves materials like charcoal, sand, cloth, and even pebbles. If you’re on a tight budget, this might be a decent option, because many of the materials are dirt cheap or free.
It’s worth noting that no matter which method or which filter you choose, you’ll have to replace them periodically. Every type of filter has a limit on how much water can be passed through it.
This is because at some point, all of the impurities will stack up, and water either won’t flow through it, or the filter media itself will start to break down, letting impurities through. At that point, it’s no longer effective.
Premade filters typically have much longer lifespans, and have exact numbers to tell you when you should be replacing them. They can usually go for a few hundred gallons of water before needing to be replaced.
Depending on the filter you get, you might still end up with water that tastes bad, even if it’s clean and safe to drink. Higher end filters and chemical purification typically remove the foul tastes better.
However, as long as you’re using a trusted filter that’s not too dirty, any water you drink out of it should be safe, even if it doesn’t taste good. It’s far more preferable to drink slightly gross-tasting water than to go without any at all.
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Chemical Based Water Purification
Utilizing chemicals to purify water can be a more efficient option a lot of the time, and should be done no matter what when you’re storing water in a long-term situation. Even store-bought water should be purified chemically if you plan on storing it for years.
If you don’t purify water when storing it, even if it’s been filtered, it will start to grow things like algae and mold on the inside of the container. If even a few microorganisms make it through the filter, they’ll multiply over time.
The most common form of chemical purification you’ll see is simply water purification tablets. These are sold almost anywhere as long as you can find camping supplies in the same space, and are easily bought online.
All you need to do with these is follow the right ratio, depending on the amount of water you have. For example, if you have 10 gallons, and each tablet is good for five gallons worth, you would add two tablets.
One of the biggest advantages of these tablets is that they often eliminate any form of chemical taste that you might get from the other methods of chemical purification. The other methods can leave a slightly off taste, even though the water is clean.
Another method that sounds wrong at first to some is using bleach. Many people are put off by this approach at first, because you’re always told strictly not to consume bleach. That’s true when it’s not diluted, but not for a large container of water.
By added a little bit of bleach to a large amount of water, it will be diluted enough to be harmless to you, while also killing off any bacteria or other microorganisms. Be sure to use normal pure bleach, rather than something with added cleaning chemicals.
In a similar way, you can also use iodine drops to purify water. Both iodine and bleach are adept at killing off harmful organisms found in your water. The primary downside of using iodine is that it leaves your water with a strange color and taste.
Some premade water purification tablets utilize iodine as the main disinfectant, but you can also buy the pure drops outright. Either way, there is a method to removing the taste from it.
You can find them in kits sold with the purification tablets or on their own, but there are tablets meant to get rid of the bad taste associated with iodine purification. This isn’t required, per se – but it certainly improves your quality of life.
Be sure to know the ratios that you’re supposed to follow, depending on what chemical purifier you’re using. You don’t want to use too much or too little, because either one can make it more dangerous to drink.
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Purifying Water with Little or No Supplies
You should also be prepared to purify water without access to supplies and a place to stay. Unfortunately, there are many survival situations in which you’ll have extremely limited supplies, and still need access to clean water.
The first essential method you can use is boiling the water. The main issues with boiling water on little to no supplies is that you need something to hold the water and a means of starting a fire.
If you’re an experienced survivalist, you might know how to start a fire using the stick method, but a new survivalist might need a fire starter on hand. Either way, a fire is required for boiling water in the wild.
If you find yourself without any metal object with which to hold water, you can still boil small amounts of water using rocks. Look for rocks with divots in them that can hold water that don’t have cracks in them, and boil it by putting the rock over the fire.
There is also a method that’s difficult to pull off but doesn’t require any fire. By utilizing distillation, by evaporating and condensing the pure water, you can acquire clean water from almost any source.
This does require you to have some containers of some sort, but if you have the right supplies, a condensing system is a reliable way of getting clean water, as long as you have some form of sunlight.
It works on the idea that impurities don’t evaporate, while water does. The water evaporates and condenses on a cover over the dirty water, with a weight in the center diverting all of the condensed water to the center.
From there, the water drips down into a funnel connected to a clean water reservoir. The impurities from the water are left behind in the dirty bin, while the clean water drips into the reservoir.
It’s difficult to set up, but if you know how to do it, and can find the little supplies needed for it, it’ll work reliably. Try to practice it a couple of times to get a hang of how to make it correctly.
If you’re in an absolute emergency, you can always try to drink straight from the water source, though know that this comes with a plethora of risks. Drinking impure water should be kept as a last resort.
By knowing how to collect and gain access to clean drinking water, you’re going to be able to drastically increase your chances of survival in an emergency situation. Keep multiple options on hand to ensure that you’ll have some kind of purification method.
