We all know the basic ideas behind having food storage. One of the biggest reasons is that it helps us be prepared for times when shopping might be impossible, too hard or too expensive. We all seem to focus on food and household items. Those are some of the most important things. Yet, I think there is something that we all would agree is as important as food. We need to store water.

Why would we need to store water? If your normal water source becomes unavailable or if you are unsure about its fitness to drink, you will need an alternative clean water supply for drinking, food preparation, and personal hygiene. The following are general guidelines for storing water.

Families should store enough clean water to allow each person in the household to use 1 to 1.5 gallons each day.

Increase the amount of water stored when there are children, sick people, nursing mothers, or pets in the household.

Families should store a minimum of a 3-day supply of water.

For Example: A four-person household would need to store 18 gallons of water. That’s 1.5 gallons per person per day for 3 days.

We’ll talk more about some ways to store that water tomorrow. Today we are going to focus on what to do with the water before we drink it. How to we make the water we have safe to drink? There are a few popular and safe methods to make stored or otherwise questionable water safe to drink.

Boiling water

Boiling water is the most common way to destroy potential pathogens. Water boiled continuously for 3 to 4 minutes can be stored in a suitable container at room temperature.

Aeration can improve the flat taste of boiled water. Aerate water by transferring water back and forth from one container to another.

Chemical treatments

Chemical treatments like chlorination and iodine tablets are also popular ways to purify water.

Chlorinate water using basic household bleach that is unscented and free of any other cleaner or color-safe component. The recommended amount of bleach to be used to disinfect a gallon of water would be: for clear water you would use 8 drops of bleach and 16 drops in cloudy water. After mixing in the bleach, let the water stand for 30 minutes. You should be able to detect a slight chlorine odor after the treatment. If not, treat the water again and let it stand for another 15 minutes.

Iodine tablets will eradicate heat-resistant pathogens. Iodine purification is more convenient and faster than chlorination, but it has limitations.

Distillation and Filtration

Distillation and filtration are newer procedures compared to boiling. In these cases, water is treated physically rather than chemically.

Filtration is a simple process where water is passed through a filter to remove impurities. Mechanical filters like strainers and sediment filters are effective in removing debris and some suspended solids.

Distillation involves collection of vapor from boiling water followed by condensation back to a liquid. The condensed water does not contain any impurities that may have been in the raw water. The “flat” taste of distilled water can be improved by aerating it.

Reverse Osmosis

Activated carbon filtration systems combined with reverse osmosis are effective in removing total dissolved solids, turbidity, asbestos, lead, and other heavy metals.

Reverse osmosis filters can remove pathogens of all sizes, but are not specifically designed to do so. Do not rely on a reverse osmosis water treatment system to remove pathogens from contaminated water.

(Information is what is recommended by the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida.)