Second only to air, water is one of our most basic human needs. Nonetheless, most people who have grown up and lived in the Western world have come to take clean water for granted. They open the faucet and clean water comes pouring out as if by magic.
At the same time, 3.575 million people die each year from water-related diseases. Most of these people live in places where there is no tap water or the tap water cannot be trusted to be clean.
Ask yourself two questions:
- Should I trust my tap water now?
- Will I be able to trust my tap water in the future?
Your tap water is prepared and delivered by municipal workers — the same people who make you wait in line for four hours at the DMV to accomplish a three minute procedure. If we can’t trust the DEA to read street addresses on warrants correctly, how can we trust government workers to supply us with clean water? Have you conducted an independent test of your water quality? Has anyone in your community? Clean water is critical to health and yet few of us pay more than passing attention to it.
Next consider the future. The economy is tanking and this is negatively affecting tax revenue not only for the federal government, but also for state and local governments. That means cost-cutting will be necessary, which means that municipal workers will be laid off. Will you be able to trust your water supply when the infrastructure starts falling apart and there are insufficient staff left to maintain it?
Then you must consider purposeful damage to the water supply, either by laid-off municipal employees or by terrorist organizations. The public water system has very little protection against the introduction of toxins.
Bottled Water
Bottled water can be stored for quite some time to provide a backup source of water in the event that the municipal water supply fails or has it’s purity compromised.
Distilling
Purchasing a home distilling machine for water will enable you to create 100% pure trustworthy clean water — if you have power to operate the still.
Private Wells
In some areas, it is possible to drill your own well to reach reasonably safe water. You will need to research the water table in your area to determine if this is feasible.
Portable Water Filters
Small water filters are available which can provide safe drinking water in manageable quantity from very impure sources. These are not long-term scalable solutions for personal hygiene, but they can certainly help to keep you alive in an emergency.
Faucet Water Filters
Larger water filters can filter water coming out of a single tap. These tend to be less effective than the portable water filters at producing clean drinking water.
Whole House Water Filters
A whole-house water filter will clean the water coming out of every tap in your house. These units filter contaminates like chlorine, chloramine, iron, hydrogen sulfide, and manganese. They are designed for volume operation, not for making the purest possible water.
Summary
A water security plan should consider all potential threats to your water supply and the chances of each threat occurring. The right solution for you might be purchasing a few chlorine tablets, or it might be installing a whole house water filter and buying a home distilling system.
