Having access to purified water is one of the most critical components of emergency preparedness. As humans, we can only survive without water for three days. No matter what emergency preparedness you have or haven’t done, storing water, as well as knowing how to purify it, is a basic step that cannot be overstated.

Long-Term Water Storage Is Vital

Did you know that the human body is able to survive up to three weeks without food?  Although that is hard to imagine, if (like most of us) you feel ravenous if you have a busy day and skip just one meal, our bodies have learned to adapt. This is only possible if you have sufficient water during these three weeks.  Water is a different story. We are made up of 60% water, and although we may not consciously think about our thirst throughout the day in the same way we think about our hunger, we can literally only survive 72 hours without drinking. In other words: store water, always, for any emergency. To try to reduce the risk of not having access to drinking water, having an abundant supply of drinking water in your long-term storage is critical. The general recommendation for water storage is one gallon per person per day, to start. This chart breaks this down in a way to hopefully help you meet this goal, no matter your circumstances: But part of emergency preparation is anticipating every “what if” scenario. What if you run out of the water, or do not have access to water, or what if all the water around you is suddenly contaminated? The simple answer is, you boil whatever water you do have. This process will pasteurize the water so that it becomes safe to consume. 

READ MORE: How Do You Know If Water Is Safe To Drink In The Wild?

How Long Do You Have To Boil Water To Kill Bacteria?

In certain survival situations, you may find yourself stuck without safe water to drink. Perhaps you run out of water in your food storage, or the water gets contaminated. Perhaps you are stranded or lost in the woods with only small lakes and streams nearby. Perhaps there is a water crisis where all the tap water becomes unsterile. In these cases (and any others), a quick and simple option is to boil the contaminated water for 3 minutes. Although the specific amount of time to kill different bacteria may vary, boiling water for 3 minutes is a general and easy-to-remember rule that can potentially save your life by providing you with safe water to drink and cook with.

But Does This Really Work?

Boiling water will pasteurize the water by raising it to 100 °C, or 212 ℉. When it reaches this temperature and the bubbles start to break on the surface, most of the bacteria, virus, and protozoa loses the structure of their protein make-up. Because of this, they are no longer able to hurt the human digestive tract.

How Effective Is Boiling Water For Water Purification?

Boiling water is effective for purification. Although the water won’t be completely sterile, the pathogens that could damage the digestive tract would be completely killed. This process is called pasteurization.

Is Boiling Water Enough To Kill Bacteria?

Yes. If the water you are disinfecting is a cloudy color, filter it first through a coffee filter or clean cloth before boiling. From here, boiling the water will be sufficient to kill the necessary bacteria so that it is safe to drink.

How Long Should You Boil Water To Kill 100 Percent Of Pathogens?

Not all bacteria are created equally, and different types of pathogens take different amounts of time to kill.

The chart below outlines which microorganisms are killed at which temperature and for which time period. As mentioned above, boiling water for 10 minutes in emergency situations is sufficient for killing all viruses and pathogens that would harm your digestive tract. Any remaining microorganisms would be safe to consume.

* Charles D. Ericsson, Robert Steffen, Howard Backer; Water Disinfection for International and Wilderness Travelers, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 34, Issue 3, 1 February 2002, Pages 355–364, https://doi.org/10.1086/324747

Do I Need To Filter The Water Once The Bacteria Have Been Killed?

It depends. In most cases, the answer is no. That being said, if you get the water from a dirty lake, it might be preferable to filter it to get most of the bigger chunks out before you drink it. 

After you have your water purified and filtered, you simply have to let it cool to room temperature, put it in airtight containers, and store it somewhere safe and cool. 

READ MORE: How To Clean Plastic Barrels For Long-Term Water Storage

CONCLUSION

Water is important to survive. We recommend you store enough for each family member to have 1 gallon per day for at least a 3 month period. After that, you can look into either boiling the water to kill the bacteria and or buying a water filter. One of our favorite water filters is the Sawyer Mini Water filter. It’s small and compact and it filters up to 100k gallons of water. Check out our YouTube review comparing the Sawyer Mini with the LifeStraw.

How To Clean Used 55 Gallon Plastic Water Barrels

Storing water is an absolutely essential part of preparing for any emergency. One effective way to store a lot of water is by buying a used 55-gallon water drum and properly cleaning it out.

 

How To Clean Chemicals Out of Plastic Water Barrels

You can use the same recommendations I list below to do the cleaning, but I would recommend against using any of these barrels that have had harmful chemicals to store your drinking water. There is just too much risk of those chemicals being stored in the plastics and then, later on, leaking into your drinking water.

If you are planning to use yours for long-term drinking water, you want to steer clear of any that might have been used to store chemicals. If you just got one that had another food-grade product in it, like syrup, it will need to be cleaned sufficiently before storing drinking water.

Only store your drinking water in barrels that have had food-grade products in them beforehand. 

How To Clean a 55 Gallon Drum

To begin, let’s talk about how to first clean out one of these massive plastic water barrels. It shouldn’t take too long, and there are multiple ways to go about it. Often, these barrels have been used to store syrups or other food-grade products pryer to your purchase, but as mentioned above, sometimes they are used to store harmful chemicals.

Here are a few cleaning options, depending on what you have on hand.

• One way to clean a plastic barrel is with chlorine bleach, which acts as a disinfectant for the germs and bacteria accumulated in the barrel. Mix 1 tablespoon of bleach per one gallon of water. If the lid is not removable, fill the bucket half full, mix with one cup of bleach, secure the lid, and roll the bucket around. Whichever method you use, rinse the barrel multiple times to dispel any residue.
• Another way to clean a plastic barrel is with soap, which will be most effective if the barrel was previously storing something oily. Add dish soap to the barrel and use a hose to rinse it out many times to get rid of any residue. Using dish soap is effective, but it is also more difficult to rinse out of the barrel. Be careful with this one because if you dump this out on your grass after cleaning, it can kill your grass.
• Baking soda can remove foul smells that exist in a plastic barrel. Mix 1 box of baking soda with water to make a thick paste and scrub the inside of the barrel. Rinse completely. Follow this method with the bleach method to ensure that all bacteria have been killed.
• No matter which method you use, you will probably need to scrub any left-over residue or debris within the plastic barrel. If you can’t get something in there to scrub, you can also use a pressure washer to clean excess residue.

 

How To Disinfect A Water Storage Tank Before Use

If you’ve bought your barrels from a place that has had syrup in them, you might not need to worry about this section.

If you’ve had your barrels for a while and use them for composting or gardening, you’ll want to verify that they don’t have algae or any bacteria growing in them.

You will want to disinfect your water storage tank if it tests positive for E.coli or any other bacteria. Luckily, this process is pretty straightforward.

 

If you’d don’t feel comfortable adding water to your barrels without testing first, you should buy this E.coli testing kit on Amazon just to make sure.

Use Bleach To Disinfect Your Water Barrel

• Get some unscented household laundry bleach. Most of them contain about 5.25% chlorine.
• Determine how much bleach to add to your water tank based on the results given from this chlorine dilution calculator.
• Funnel in the proper amount of bleach, and recirculate the water in the drum through a clean, food-grade hose for approximately 15 minutes. You should be able to smell the bleach.
• Distribute the bleach by opening all of the water taps in the barrel and allowing the water to run until you can smell the chlorine running through each tap.
• At this point, you’ll want to close the taps and let the drum fill up all the way, and then turn off the water. Allow the water to sit for 24 hours.
• After letting it sit overnight, open up all of the taps and holes and flush the bleach from the barrel the best that you can. Let the water run through the barrel until the bleach smell is very minimal. You will still be able to smell it a little bit, but a small amount of bleach in your water won’t hurt you.

Flush all water into a driveway or onto the gravel. Again, do not drain this water on your grass, or you could kill it. 

Long Term Water Storage Tips

Ok, so now you’re done cleaning your 55-gallon drum that you’re going to use for water storage. Now what? There are still a few important things you need to know in order to make your water last and stay clean. Let’s take a deeper look into how we should store our water long-term.

 

How To Store Water Long-Term

As long as the water barrels are stored in a cool, dark area, and not stored directly on cement or near chemicals, you should be able to keep the water for many years.

The plastic that the barrel is made out of is very absorbent. If you store these barrels directly on cement or near any harmful chemicals, there is a good chance the plastic will absorb the chemicals or other products, ultimately ending up in your drinking water.

You also don’t want to store them directly in the sunlight because there is a higher likelihood that you will end up growing algae on the inside of the barrel.

The best place to store your water is in your cool basement or any other cold and dark area.

Some people prefer to rotate their water every 6 to 12 months. There is nothing wrong with this. The only thing this is doing is re-oxygenating the water. If you store your water long-term and then use it, it can taste a bit stale. You can also overcome this by pouring water back and forth from one water picture to another very aggressively. How often you replace your water is up to you.

 

How Much Bleach Do I Add To A 55-Gallon Water Barrel?

If you get your water from the tap or filtered city water this is not needed. You’ll want to verify where the water is coming from. In most cases, water spouts that come directly from the house should be clean water that has already been treated from the water treatment plant.

If you get your water from irrigation water you will for sure want to treat it before use. Or, if you open your water to use and it has a funny smell, you’ll also want to take some extra precautions to make sure the water is safe to drink before drinking it.

If you do end up using bleach to clean your water, use normal unscented, household bleach.

Add ¼ teaspoon per gallon of water if the water is cloudy and ⅛ teaspoon per gallon of water if the water is clear. This means that for a 55-Gallon drum you’ll want to add 13 ¾ teaspoons if the water is cloudy and 6 ¾ teaspoons if the water is clear.

Or you can determine how much bleach to add to your water tank based on the results given from this chlorine dilution calculator.

Every time I am in the great outdoors, I realize exactly how unpolished my survival skills are. In fact, the vast majority of us are merely beginners when it comes to outdoor survival. I did a little homework and put together what I believe are the 6 most important outdoor survival skills for beginners.

What are the most important outdoor survival skills every beginner should know?

• Fire starting skills
• Navigation skills
• First aid skills
• Finding food and water
• Shelter building skills
• Emergency communication skills

The level of preparedness needed for most scenarios depends on the specific situation, location, and climate.

Those who are just starting down their preparedness journey often run into what’s called “information paralysis”. There is so much information out there that it can actually overwhelm you to the point of just not doing anything at all. Because of that, I will keep this article as simple as possible.

 

Survival Skill: #1 Fire-Starting Skills

How To Start a Fire Without Matches Or A Lighter

You never know when you will find yourself in a survival situation where you need to make fire just to survive. If you don’t have matches ready, you may find yourself feeling a little defeated by the idea of making a fire without that easy tool. However, there are some excellent options to make a fire without the dependence upon matches. Use our favorite fire-making techniques so you can survive in the wild

Flint and Steel

One of the easiest ways to start a fire is by using flint and steel. Flint and steel kits can be found at hardware stores, online, and some gas stations even carry small kits. Use some tinder to have a base for the fire to get started. Good tinder can be cotton wool, dryer lint, cedar shavings, cattails, and birch bark shavings. To create a spark with the flint and steel, create a small bird’s nest with the tinder to catch the sparks that will come from flint and steel. Strike the flint with a metal striker and you will see small sparks appear. One of these small sparks will catch in your tinder nest, where you can immediately gently blow on the spark inside the nest until it starts a fire. Use this video to help you walk through the process of creating a good flint and steel fire.

Glass lens

A glass lens fire has been popular in movies, but most people do not realize you can actually start a fire with a glass lens. A magnifying glass that rotates or has a handle is the ideal selection for starting a fire. Create a tinder nest and place it on the ground and aim the beam of the sun through the glass lens on the tinder nest until it starts to smoke. Gently blow on the tinder nest to help produce a flame.

Friction sticks

If you’ve ever seen Cast Away with Tom Hanks, you have seen a friction stick fire in action. Friction sticks are one of the most challenging options to make a fire, but it is effective when you can do it correctly. To use this method, use a V-shaped notch in a log and then grab another dry stick to create a spindle. Now, rub the spindle between your hands as quickly as you can to create friction, creating heat, and eventually smoke will start, which you want to hurry and get that tinder nest to catch the small spark.

Reflective tools

Reflective tools are designed to harness the power of the sun to start a fire. Reflective tools like the Solar Spark Lighter can fit inside your pocket, making it an ideal solution for an emergency kit. There is a stainless-steel parabolic mirror inside that is designed to use the sun’s radiant energy to start a fire. The device looks like a half-domed cone that will capture the heat, starting a fire on the small tip, which allows you to take the small ember and place it into your bird’s nest kindling to start a larger fire.

This is the one that I have, just in case you wanted to see it.

9-volt battery and steel wool

A 9-volt battery and some steel wool could save your life if you are in an emergency survival situation. Simply rub the steel wool on the battery and instantly there will be a spark. We recommend starting this type of fire in a fire pit where you have kindling and wood ready to go as the fire starts quickly, and you will need to act fast to avoid getting burned.

**Pro Tip – Make sure you have a nice amount of dry kindling to make it easier for the spark to catch fire. Gentle blowing on the bird’s nest is essential. If you blow too hard, you will blow out the spark. If you blow too lightly, your spark won’t ignite.

Survival Skill #2: Navigation Skills

How to find your way around the wilderness

Finding yourself in the wild without a GPS can feel daunting. Some people are not sure how to use the sun and stars to navigate themselves through the wild. A compass can feel like a foreign object to others. The important thing to remember when dealing the wilderness is to become familiar with your surroundings, know what gear you do have, and to avoid panicking. Here are our favorite methods to navigate your way out of the woods.

Maps

Use a compass to find north on the map and then place the map in the correct direction so you can find yourself on the map. You may need to rotate the map around to make sure you have the correct positioning. Now that the map is in the right direction, find yourself on the map. One way to do this is to find the closest town you remember and trace your path from that area. There are different types of maps to use, so you will want to follow this link to help understand how to read the different types of typography.

Compass

Learning to read a compass is not quite as hard as you might think. You’ll need to start with the basics to know North, South, East, and West and then identify the red and black needle. The red part always needs to point towards the earth’s magnetic pull to the north pole. To find north is to look where that magnetic needle is facing. That is the easiest way to find North. Learning the additional skills of learning to use a compass are best left to the experts you can watch here.

Using the Sun and the stars

Star navigation is a unique skill to have when you are in an emergency. The first place to start is by finding the North Star (Polaris), it is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor (Little Dipper). Finding the Little Dipper and Big Dipper constellations is normally fairly easy. Once you locate the North Star, determine the angle in degrees between the position of the northern horizon and the North Star’s position. To obtain the degrees, you can extend your fist to the horizon and stack your fists on top of each other until you reach the North Star. A fist length is normally about 10 degrees of angle measure. This will help you find your latitude, making it easier to get your bearings. Here is a quick explainer video to learn how to read the stars.

Survival Skill #3: First Aid Skills

How to dress a wound in the wild

Getting a wound in the wild can be challenging to keep from becoming infected. Open wounds can be serious as it doesn’t take much for bacteria to start causing infection, and you have to worry about blood loss or tissue damage. Use our quick reference guide to learn how to clean, treat, and care for wounds in the wild.

Knowledge

The most important thing is to understand how a wound can become problematic. You need to clean the wound quickly and stop the bleeding if there is a great deal of bleeding and tissue damage. Remove or cut away clothing from the wound and look for an exit would if you’ve been pierced by something. Once you have access to the wound, you will need to clean the skin surrounding the wound. Boiling hot water is needed to limit the spread of bacteria from your hands to the wound. Gently cleanse the wound if it is not too serious. Do not try and suture a wound in the wild, instead, do the open treatment method by allowing the wound to remain open to allow drainage to occur. A clean dressing placed on top of the wound will limit additional infection, but you need to change the dressing daily. For gaping wounds, consider using some butterfly bandages to help pull the skin together. Infection is one of the biggest concerns in the wild, so you want to make sure you have a warm compress to clean the wound and keep it on for at least 30 minutes, 3-4 times a day until you can receive proper medical treatment. Stay hydrated with water to help the body have plenty of fluids to aid in the healing process.

Kits

A well-stocked first-aid kit could save your life in a survival situation. There are several things that your kit should include:

• • Gauze pads
  • Adhesive tape
  • Band-Aids in multiple sizes
  • Elastic bandages
  • Splint
  • Antiseptic wipes
  • Antibiotic ointment
  • Soap
  • Tweezers
  • Hydrocortisone cream
  • Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and Benadryl
  • Scissors
  • Safety pins
  • Cold packs
  • Calamine lotion
  • Alcohol wipes
  • Emergency blanket
  • Flashlight

Of course, your first aid kit could have more or fewer items, but these are some of the most essential items you will need in a survival situation.

Practice

Prior to a trip in the woods, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with a first aid kit and know how to use the items. This video series is a good one to understand first aid kits. You’ll want to take some time to practice using a splint, making a sling, tying knots, and CPR.

Survival Skill #4: Finding Food and Water

How to find food in the wild

Any time you find yourself in a survival situation, it pays to spend time getting your bearings, setting up shelter, and finding food and water. If you are not sure where to begin with food, here are some things that will help you through a basic survival situation.

Pro Tip: Do not eat anything that you do not know what it is, especially when it comes to plants and berries!

Hunting

Learning how to hunt in a survival situation can be tricky if you haven’t done it before. Start by hunting small game as it’s easier to manage. Squirrels, rabbits, fish, mice, and raccoons are usually the easiest animals to start with. Animals are active in the morning and evening, so these are the best times to hunt. Most animals are close to water sources, and you want to walk very quietly so you do not scare them. Walking slowly and stopping to listen for noise can help to guide you to the animals.

Trapping

Instead of going out to hunt, some people like to set up traps and cause the game to come to them. A simple snare is normally the easiest one to set up. Use some string, rope, or wire and tie a small loop, passing the end of the rope through it to make a loop noose. Now, place the snare in front of the opening to a den, tighten the other side of the string to a rock or tree. When the animal leaves the den, their head will be trapped in the noose.

Foraging

Foraging in the wild is one of the most common ways to find food. It pays to read up on plants to understand how to identify an edible plant from a poisonous one. Learning about the types of plants in your area will help a lot when it comes to surviving in the wild. Some foods that you can eat and are found in most areas include:

• • Dandelions
  • Sorrel
  • Wild garlic
  • Hawthorn
  • Elderflowers and elderberries
  • Blackberries
  • Stinging Nettle

How to find water in the wild

In any survival situation, finding water is one of the most important things. Dehydration will impact your physical and mental health, and it doesn’t take long for it to set in. Unfortunately, the water in the wild can be contaminated and must be purified prior to drinking.

Finding

One of the easiest ways to find water is to look for vegetation, especially in the desert areas. Animals often stay close to water sources, so follow them as you are searching for water. If there are no sources of water around, you will need to try other methods to collect water. Start by using a container to collect dew by digging a hole as deep as you can (recommended 3 feet) and placing a container inside. In the morning, some water will be collected at the bottom of the container. Another way to find water is to take a plastic bag and tie it as tightly as you can on non-poisonous vegetation, allowing the water vapor to collect on the bag.

Filtering

For the majority of people, finding water in the woods is fairly easy, but filtering it is the hard part. Filtering water is one way to cleanse it to drink. Sand filtration is the most common method used to filter water. Grab two water bottles and cut the nose off the bottle’s base to make a cone shape. Then, use pebbles, cotton, or fabric to make a filter. Once this is added, include small gravel (this helps to keep the filter in place). Use sand to fill the cone-shaped bottle and add water through the filter piece. The goal is to have clear water come out the bottom, if it isn’t clear, keep passing it through the filter. Use this video to learn more about creating a filter with a plastic water bottle.

Purifying

Making drinking water safe is the most important thing you can do! You need to boil the water to purify it as this will kill the bacteria. If you do not have anything to boil water, use iodine tablets, chlorine drops, or a water filter to clean the water. Solar light is a great way to use natural elements to clean the water. Expose plastic bottles full of water to the sun for an entire day as the UV light will kill most of the hazards in the water. Disinfecting tablets are much more effective when it comes to purifying the water, so consider adding them to your emergency preparedness bag.

Survival Tip #5: Shelter Skills

How to build a shelter in the wild

Surviving in the wild comes down to knowing how to build a shelter that will aid in keeping you away from the wild animals, the elements, and the insects. If you do not have a tarp with you, there are some other ways you can build a shelter. Gaining knowledge and practice prior to heading out on a wild adventure may save your life! Use this guide to learn about different types of shelters to create without having supplies.

Knowledge

You need to know what type of shelter you need to search for in the wild. Hopefully, you have taken the time to gather supplies and practice prior to going into the woods. No matter what shelter you are planning to build. You want to find a place that has dry, flat ground and is not right next to the water. You’ll want to have a place for a fire to be close by, helping you stay warm at night. An A-frame shelter is one of the easiest to create in the wild. Find a single, long, study branch as the main holder for the frame. Bring one end of this log to be propped up by another stick or a tree. Grab several shorter branches and begin laying them against the branch. Soon you will have a sloped roof. Cover the branches with several leaves or small branches to create a nice shelter.

Material

To create a small A-frame shelter, you need one large branch that is about two feet taller than you are. Determine if you want both sides open, or just one end of the shelter opened. If you do one side, you need to find a tree to place the large branch against, or you can use a large branch to hold up the largest branch. Once both branches in place, you want to have several sticks, leaves, twigs, grass, dirt, anything you can gather and compact together to create a roof and flooring. Leaves are usually the easiest thing to use to create nice bedding. You can even get creative and use leaves to make a blanket with.

Practice

Whether you have supplies or not, taking some time to practice making different survival shelters is important. Use this video to learn more about how to make a shelter in the wild.

Survival Skill #6: Emergency Communication Skills

What’s the best way to communicate in case of an emergency

Communicating in an emergency situation is crucial to saving your life, or the lives of others. What is the best way to get in touch with other people when you are in the woods? Here are our top three methods of communication:

Text messaging

Bring along an emergency battery with you in the event of a situation where you need to call or get a message out. If you know you are headed out camping, keep your phone fully charged to use in the event of an emergency. You can subscribe to local text alert services and set up your phone with an emergency text. Send a text message instead of calling as it usually gets the message out faster. Send a text message to everyone on your contact list with your last known whereabouts and if you have any injuries. A phone could pick up a signal for a second or two, which is enough time to get the message out.

Ham radio

One of the best survival communication methods is Ham radio as most emergency responders use them. Ham radio can reach the national weather system frequencies and you can scan for a channel to start sending a message. To use a Ham radio, you do need a license.

Walkie-Talkie

A walkie-talkie is the best way to stay in communication if you are traveling with a group. Carrying some extra batteries will help you to keep it charged to try and get a signal to your other travelers, or other people nearby. Agree upon a channel so you can get in touch with everyone and scan the channels as you try to get in touch with someone. Walkie-talkies are great because they won’t lose a signal the way your GPS or cell phone will in the wild.

Related Questions

Do I Need to Know How to tie a knot?

Knot tying is a great skill, but it is not necessary for most survival situations. However, we do recommend taking time to learn knot tying as it will allow you to trap wildlife, climb steep areas, and more.

Conclusion

These six survival guide basics can help save your life. Survival is all about using your common sense, making use of your resources, and practicing prior to venturing out in the wild. Implementing some basic survival skills will help to polish up critical thinking skills. Our rule of thumb with survival is the same as Special Operations, “Rule of Three”. The rule of three means a person can survive:

• 3 minutes without oxygen
• 3 hours without regulated body temperature (why you need to know how to start a fire and build a shelter)
• 3 days without water
• 3 days without food

Taking just a few minutes a day to practice each of the above survival skills will help you in the event of being in an emergency situation. If you are planning to venture into the wilderness, we recommend taking an outdoor survival course. Most of these classes are free and taught at local community centers, churches, universities campuses, and more. Our final pro tip is to keep a positive mental attitude. Keeping your wits about you will also go a long way in helping you survive!

It’s common knowledge that we can live much longer without food than we can without water. Our bodies are at least two-thirds water. After the air we breathe, water is the most essential nutrient our body needs for survival.

Why do we need water?

Our bodies lose a lot of water through sweat, urine, and even just by breathing. The amount of water our bodies lose each day depends on the conditions our bodies are dealing with. For example, extreme heat conditions can cause an average adult to lose up to half a gallon of water per day through sweat alone. If you add physical exertion to the conditions (say you’re hiking in the desert) you will lose more water more quickly.

Cold conditions tend to dehydrate us as well—so don’t forget to drink plenty of water when you hit the slopes. How healthy a person is can determine how long they can survive without water. A healthy person may last a whole day long without water than an unhealthy person.  In average conditions—not too hot and not too cold—and with little to no physical exertion, the average adult can survive for three to five days without replenishing their water.

Recommended amounts of water

It’s recommended that adults drink about eight cups (64 ounces) of water each day. Some of this water can be taken in through food and other liquids, so if you don’t quite make all eight cups you’re probably ok. If you’re packing water for your emergency kit, it’s good to include a gallon of water for each day. This will give you enough to drink and enough for basic sanitation and cooking needs.

Technically speaking, when drinking water (or potable water as it’s often called) is stored in properly sanitized, airtight containers it should have an indefinite shelf life. However, it is a good idea to rotate your long-term water storage every six to twelve months to reduce the chance of contamination.

Rotating your water regularly can also help you determine your actual water storage needs and allow you to adjust your store before an emergency comes.

Storing Water in the Freezer

Many people like to store all or part of their emergency water in the freezer. This is a great idea, but not for the reason most people think. Most people believe freezing their water will kill bacteria or viruses. It’s true that storing your water in a cool, dark place will help to inhibit the introduction of organisms in your water, but just as freezer food needs to be cooked, frozen water isn’t guaranteed to be bacteria-free.

The biggest benefit of water in your freezer is that it can help to keep your freezer foods cold when the power is out. Your frozen water will act like ice in an ice chest. A full freezer can last a couple of days without power—as long as you don’t open the door.

Bacteria Prevention

Before you store your water, you will need to wash and sanitize the containers you will be using. Wash all water containers in hot soapy water and rinse them off thoroughly. Then, you will want to sanitize them by putting them in a solution of one tablespoon of bleach to one gallon of water. Let them sit in the solution for at least two minutes before rinsing them off and filling them up.