There are some necessities that you must have in order to sustain life. Water is something that you can’t live without. Yet, sadly, it’s one of the things that many people don’t get prepared for. Some people do prepare, but then something ends up happening to the water supply. Regardless of whatever occurs to cause you to not have water, you have to be able to find it – and you need to get to it fast. If you have it and lose it, then you need to be able to rely on a backup plan. We’re going to look at a variety of prepping plans you can make to ensure that you and your family have access to drinkable water.
When it comes to preparing for an emergency survival situation, it’s usually stockpiling food that people concentrate on. But you can survive without food far longer than you can without water. You can last for up to three weeks, depending on the climate and what type of shelter you have if you don’t have food. But you can only make it three days if you don’t have any water. Since it’s essential that you have water in order to survive, it’s always best to make sure you have a supply on hand for when a crisis hits. But if you don’t, there’s no need to panic because there are multiple ways that you can find water both out in the wild and in your own home. You need to consume 64 ounces of water on a daily basis. But there are other factors that can change how much water you need to drink day to day. Consuming 64 ounces is the minimum when factors are in your favor.
However, you’ll need more water in different conditions. If the area that you live in is unusually humid or if you have high temperatures where you are, then you’ll need more than the standard 64 ounces. Your need can also change if you happen to have a higher altitude as compared to a lower one. In an emergency situation, you’re probably going to be more active and maybe even traveling more. If you find yourself having to hike for a while to get to a safe area, then you’re going to lose water through the physical exercise. Whenever you’re moving or working, your body’s need for water is more imperative. The more active you are, the greater amount of water you’ll need. You might also need to have more water depending on what the weather is like. Under the hot sun, you’ll have a greater need than if you were walking under a gray sky filled with clouds.
Consider all of the factors when you’re figuring up how much water you’re going to need for yourself and your family. Without getting the water that it needs, your body does more than simply become thirsty. Without the proper supply of water, your body can’t function properly. You won’t be able to function as well. Your body can’t break down food as easily and your organs won’t work as well.
In the first 24 hours without water, you’ll start to feel the effects. Your mouth will feel like you’ve stuffed it with cotton balls. You’ll experience a loss of energy and you’ll feel tired and sluggish. You’ll have a thirst that’s uncomfortable. There won’t be as much urine produced as your body desperately tries to slow down water loss. Your skin will start to dry out. You’ll develop headaches and feel lightheaded. As the dehydration progresses, the thirst will become almost unbearable. You may not be able to urinate at all. Your skin will appear to cling together if you do the pinch test.
Your eyes will have a sunken appearance. Your heart will start going into tachycardia. Your blood pressure will drop as the body continues to try to fight but by now, your organs are being overwhelmed by the lack of water and no oxygen is being transported by your blood cells because they can’t function to deliver what your body needs. Hallucination can start to set in. Many people pass out from the lack of water at this point. If immediate re-hydration doesn’t occur, at this stage, the organs will shut down and you will die.
If you don’t have water on hand in an emergency situation, your first priority is to find some and then deal with any other needs you may have. Not having the right amount of water doesn’t affect everyone in the same way. People who are older will succumb to the effects of dehydration quicker. So will people who have certain types of diseases. Young children and babies will not be able to survive as long as an adult can if they don’t have water. You don’t want to put your life or the lives of your loved ones at risk – not when there’s a simple way you can avoid it. All you have to do is be prepared and spring into action the moment you recognize that there’s a need.
Nothing is worse in a survival situation than not knowing what you’re going to do when disaster strikes unexpectedly. It’s one thing to not be prepared, but it’s quite another to not know anything about what to do so you end up panicking. When a crisis hits, especially if it’s widespread, what often gets disrupted first are the utilities. People lose power to their homes. Most people don’t really take notice of this as a major emergency right when it happens – it’s not even a blip on their radar. They don’t react because when the power goes off, it’s usually back on within a matter of hours. They’re used to the city coming to their rescue and making sure everything’s running as it should.
In times of bad weather, it’s usually back on within a few days at the most. When everything is restored to normal, people forget about the interruption and annoyance to their daily routine and life goes on. However, when a chaotic situation hits that have the potential to last for a while, you will lose your ability to have clean water. You won’t be able to turn on the faucet in your home and pour yourself a glass of water. Forget about using the line from your refrigerator to have some. You won’t be able to take a shower or flush your toilet. While that might seem extreme, it’s already happened all over the world and you can bet it’s going to happen again.
Just look back through major disasters at how quickly the government was overwhelmed with the level of need and people suffered without water, food, or shelter while waiting for help amid the ruins of their broken, chaotic lives. It’s up to you. Because what happens when major power grids go down is that people also lose their ability to have water. Your water supply source is usually produced through the use of electricity. When that’s interrupted for a while, you’re going to quickly run out of water. So unless you know how to survive off the grid, you won’t. That’s why you have to know what you’re going to do right now, today before there’s an emergency need for water. If you’re like many people, you might think that you can hang tight and just use whatever water you have around the house. Or you might think you can just hop into your car and head out to the grocery store where you’ll buy some. There will be thousands of people with the exact same idea if everyone knows there’s an emergency. Your odds of finding a readymade water supply that will last you at the grocery store isn’t a viable survival idea. Even if stores are open, you can bet there will have been a run on the water supply and those shelves will be sitting empty.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can just hike out and quickly find a source of clean water. Water that’s outside is subject to all sorts of things that can make it unsuitable to drink in its natural state. Drinking water that’s filled with bacteria can cripple anyone with a debilitating illness. You can get prepared by having on the go filtering systems that you can use once you find water sources. You’ll want to make sure that you have an abundant way to prepare the water to make it safe to drink. You’ll also want to make sure that your “on the go filtering system” isn’t complicated. You want something that will make the water ready to drink in as little time as possible. Plus, you want to make sure that any on the go filtering method isn’t bulky, since you may be traveling on foot for a while.
The biggest key to surviving a crisis situation is being able to get to the water. There is plenty of water in nature but if you’re not sure where to go or how to get to it, then it might as well not exist. Learn now where you’re going to go to get to the water. Before there’s an emergency, know exactly where all of the water resources are located in your area.
