Urban Survival Planning – Water Management, Pre and Post Collapse

One of the foremost factors in your Survival planning has got to be Water. Without water you will die and die quickly. A person can go without water for maybe 48 hours maybe slightly longer depending upon activity, but towards the end of period without water, that person’s ability to accomplish tasks such as moving and even thinking will be greatly reduced until their body shuts down and dies.

What this means to the Urban Survivor developing his/her Survival Plan is that you have to plan for water throughout the phases of your Urban Survival Plan.

You should be planning on leaving your Urban or Suburban location for a safe location. This safe location should have a water source and not rely on public utilities for water. Such as a stream or river, a well, a lake, etc. If the source is a well, how will it be powered after the power utilities go out?

You would most likely be at your urban or suburban location for a period of time after the collapse is evident, unless you are really on the ball. If you stay at your home for any length of time following a shut down of the water utilities you will need to plan for water to last as long as you are going to stay there and then plan a safety factor. One gallon per person per day would be minimum and you should consider people that may end up part of your survival group.

If you drink bottled water and normally store a case in your pantry, then you may want to consider stocking say ten (10) cases, and each week or two, replenishing your supply so if the collapse hits you unexpectedly you have a supply on hand.

You may think about having empty water storage containers such as one gallon camping type water jugs or even 5 gallon cans. Once events starts happening to make you nervous, then start filling.

If you still have water pressure and you know water is or has been cut off, you maybe be able to fill your bathtub(s) and use that water first.

If and when the collapse hits and water utilities are out, do not use water for non-essential things like washing-bathing or flushing toilets. Consider now, how you are doing to deal with human waste. A porta-potty type arrangement, or even storing waste in sealed plastic bags, such as trash bags or grocery bags, then into a larger container would work.

If you get caught short, there is a small supply of water you can purify and use for drinking in the toilet tanks and hot water heaters.

If you store water for a long time, you may need to purify it. See the earlier post under Survival Skills for water purification.

Again once the Collapse hits you need to have water for the time your are going to be at your present Urban or Suburban location, and for your movement to your safe location. Consider a safety factory in case your time line doesn’t go according to plan. Consider your purification needs and protocols as well. Be safe.