Water Procurement: Finding Water

How long have you gone thirsty? Did you ever have to bathe with two pints of water? We’ll begin to tell you how to improve your odds against these situations and more in Water Procurement: Finding Water.

Finding water is an unconscious act during our regular lives in the United States, however, this can turn upside down during an emergency. Continuing our series of posts on water we talk about to find this precious necessity.

Water from Human Sources

From a city or town the chances of a human-made source of water are great, maybe even the most likely. This excludes a store of water that you keep for emergencies.  Because these locations aren’t straight out a tap (assuming you can drink your tap water) plan on treating the water to make it drinkable.

Stand up and look around your home, look for water. Do you have plants? A fish tank? Did your brain block out the toilet water tank because of taboo? If this quick exercise did not spot a lot of water its time for you to make a checklist, from most to least amount of water around the home.

Do you have a coffee machine with a reservoir in it? Put it on the list. Does your fridge have a water tank that you can empty manually? Put it on your checklist.

Other locations for water around the home

Swimming pool, water bed (who has these any more?!), and water heater tanks can have water, but it may be treated in a way that makes it impossible for you to drink safely. Research this point now before an emergency and use caution if it gets to the point of needing this water.

Water Outside Your Home

Wells and reservoirs could be around your home. Drawing water manually out of a well will be a pain in the butt. Though you may be able to plan for that, is power all you need to run the pump?

Local Park’s water features like fountains and lakes go on your ‘Water Outside’ checklist, including how far they are from your home, try eyeing if you can drop a 5-gallon bucket in there or will you have to lay on the ground with a gallon in your hand.

Has an emergency management organization set up a water supply? if so use it.

Natural Sources for Water

Rain, yeah rain, if you can set up a rain catchment system. If it’s illegal, then plan for that regardless, and also start voting for rainwater collection to become legal in your community.

If you are lucky enough to have a lot of vegetation and the right conditions where you live, then transpiration bags (aka, a large clear plastic bag) and dew collecting can be parts of your plan.

Surface water

Springs, rivers, lakes, and ponds are easy places to get water. Do you have one of these close to you? Can you get to it easily and safely? If yes, put them on your checklist! Get ready to filter and treat the water as well.

Seas, oceans, saltwater will need desalinization (including solar desalinization). Which is not cheap.

Other Ways To Find Water

You can try dowsing your backyard, if you have one, or melt snow if in season and get snow in your ecozone. A garden plan with a log of fruits or veggies with high water content may help a little. It is not a replacement for water, but a watermelon sure has a lot of it in it.

If you bugged out or got out of dodge on your Ford, check out Water in Wilderness Survival.

Conclusion on Finding Water

That is what water procurement or finding water is all about. Knowing where to look, this post is not exhaustive by any means, but it begins to help. I want to shake your memory a bit, and definitely bring attention to finding water. Create a checklist, introduce water procurement to your plans and make it happen.