Amid food inflation and shortages perhaps even more important than stocking up on nonperishable foods is to make sure you have a supply of potable water. Many are so used to having running tap water on demand that they forget that source can vanish overnight.
City water is typically pumped into a tall water tower. It’s then distributed from the tower into your house by gravity. However, during a power outage, no new water can be pumped into the tower if the municipality runs out of fuel to run its backup generators.
That means the only water available for the area is what’s in the tower. If the power failure continues for an extended period of time, the tank will be emptied and taps will run dry.
Apartment dwellers are even more vulnerable to power outages, as the water may be shut off immediately upon a power outage. This is because the water is pumped up into the apartments from the basement, and without electricity, that pump won’t work unless there’s a backup generator.
Even then, the water will only flow for as long as the generator has fuel. People with well water are in the same situation. Most well pumps are powered by electricity, and when there’s a power outage, you’ll need a generator. If you have a well, it’s imperative that you not only have a backup generator but a secondary pump or even two in case your primary pump fails.
If you live in a hurricane-prone area, you’re probably used to the annual ritual of stocking up on bottled water. However, you can only store so many bottles, and if deliveries to your local grocery store are interrupted for a period of time—which at this point is a very real possibility—you’ll eventually run out.
So with all those limitations and the prospect of rising energy costs, rolling blackouts, or perhaps even longer-term power outages, how can you make sure you’ll have enough water to drink, cook, maintain hygiene, and water your garden with?
The solution I’ll focus on in this article involves installing one or more rain barrels. This won’t work if you live in an apartment, but if you have a home, it’s an excellent long-term solution. BlueBarrel founder Jesse Savou explains how to set up a gravity-fed drip irrigation system for your garden using several rain barrels in a YouTube video.
The BlueBarrel rainwater catchment system includes a series of rain barrels set on top of a couple of cinder blocks to achieve a three-foot elevation. The barrels are connected with PVC pipe, and the barrel on one end is connected to a drip irrigation hose with a timer. The pipe is equipped with a fine-mesh filter to prevent debris from clogging the emitters.
The timer Savou uses is solar operated, so no electricity is required. It will also work with AA batteries if you don’t have a lot of sunlight. The two types of driplines they sell with their kits are both nonpressurized and work by gravity alone.
“You don’t want to use regular drip equipment or compensator lines,” Savou said, “because you won’t get good output.”
If you don’t have a garden—and despite looming food shortages don’t want to start one—this water can save you if you lose your tap water. A system like this can provide a lot of peace of mind, as the water will be replenished indefinitely without you having to do any work.
The only thing that will threaten your water supply is a persistent drought. That said, you do have to take precautions to keep the water in your barrels clean, which I’ll review shortly.
This isn’t the system I use. Since I have a full acre of land to grow food on I need loads more water, so I have a 5,000-gallon cistern that collects rainwater from the gutters on my roof. This serves to augment my irrigation system but is also a large emergency source of water.
While we’re on the topic of gardening, there are good reasons to install a gravity-fed drip irrigation system, even if you’re not concerned about having a backup water supply, as rainwater benefits your plants in ways that tap water can’t. As explained by Mercury News:
“You could deliver 14 inches of water … through sprinklers or hoses or drip emitters and your plants would not look as good or be as healthy as when the same amount of water, in the form of rain, is heaven-sent.
“There are several reasons rainwater is more suitable for plants than tap water, but the most important is chemistry. In tap water, chlorine is a necessary disinfectant and fluoride is added. … Nearly all plants, however, are susceptible to chlorine toxicity, usually expressed in burnt leaf margins.
“Pines, yuccas, and fruit trees, in particular, are subject to fluoride toxicity as well, with symptoms ranging from burnt, discolored, or spotted leaves to stressed fruit that may become diseased.”
Rainwater also has the following benefits over tap water:
As mentioned, you do want to make sure the water in your barrels is as clean as possible. Basics include:
If the inside of the barrel gets slimy or visible algae is growing in it; if you notice waterborne insects, such as mosquitoes, breeding in it; or if the water smells bad, you’ll need to flush and scrub the barrel.
Ideally, empty and scrub each barrel once per year before the heaviest rain season. Under ideal conditions, you may only need to scrub them every other year. For detailed instructions on how to clean the barrel, see Homestead in Hawaii’s essential guide on keeping your rain barrels clean.
While you’re at it, consider upgrading your garden hose to something that isn’t chockful of toxic chemicals that will end up in your homegrown food every time you water.
Lead, bromine, antimony, phthalates, BPA, and flame retardant chemicals were all common culprits found in garden hoses during a 2016 test, and many of those chemicals were found in unsafe amounts in the water run through the hose.
As just one example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s action level for lead in drinking water is 15 parts per billion (ppb), and lead-containing hoses resulted in the water having lead levels between 13 and 20 ppb. As noted by Gillian Miller, a staff scientist at the Ecology Center:
“Even if you actively avoid putting harmful chemicals into your yard or garden in the form of pesticides, you could still be adding hazardous chemicals into your soil by watering with one of these hoses. The good news is that none of these chemicals are necessary in garden hoses, and a number of safe hoses are available.”
The safest hoses out of the ones tested were Big Boss AquaStream Ultra Light, Pocket Hose Dura-Rib II, Room Essentials Coil Hose with Multi Pattern Nozzle, and Water Right Professional Coil Garden Hose. For general guidance, read the label and look for a hose labeled “Drinking Water Safe” and “Lead-Free.” Avoid hoses that have a California Prop. 65 warning, as that means they likely contain cancer-causing chemicals.
Other ways to minimize chemical exposures include not letting the hose bake in the sun and letting the water run for at least five seconds or longer for long hoses, before watering your plants, to flush out chemicals that may have leached into the stagnant water. I recommend not drinking out of your garden hose, but if you’re setting up a water collection system for drinking that requires the use of a hose, make sure it’s nontoxic.
If you maintain a clean rain barrel setup and treat the water as recommended to kill off any pathogens, the rainwater will probably be safe to drink. I would still recommend putting it through additional filtration, however, just to be safe. Diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration caused by contaminated water could be a death knell in an already hazardous situation.
Filtration systems such as the Berkey system that can filter out pathogens would be ideal. Also, be sure to stock up on extra filters. These kinds of filtration systems can also be used to filter other, far more questionable water sources, such as water collected from a lake or stream.
Even a small survival water filtration system, such as the LifeStraw, is better than nothing and will allow you to filter the water you’re about to drink, no matter where you are. If you don’t have a filtration system capable of filtering out bacteria, viruses, and protozoa, you’ll need to filter out any debris first, then disinfect it using other means. Options include:
Hopefully, reality is starting to set in, and you’ve already begun considering your options. How are you going to provide safe drinking water for yourself and your family if the worst-case scenario becomes reality and there’s no tap water and no bottled water being delivered to the store?
If you’re not collecting rainwater and have no freshwater source on your property, be it a well, lake, or stream, you would be wise to plot out where your nearest water source is.
If you live in the United States, findaspring.com can help you locate freshwater springs, most of which are relatively pristine, that allow you to collect water free of charge or for a small fee. As long as you have water purification and disinfection supplies on hand, you’ll be able to treat whatever water you’re able to get your hands on.