Household Emergency Water Purification

Have you ever stopped to think about what you would do if there was some kind of natural emergency in your area that cut off your flow of clean water? Maybe the thought has crossed your mind because you’ve seen news reports from other areas that have been struck with tornadoes, earthquakes, or hurricanes or some other type of emergency situation and heard about the people waiting in long lines to receive bottled water trucked in from somewhere else. Maybe you even have a couple of gallons of stale bottled water tucked away in a corner of your basement in case of emergency, but how long do you think that supply would last, especially if you have a family? In times of crisis, emergency water purification becomes a big issue and is something that you need to plan for long before anything ever happens.

The type of emergency water purification system you purchase will depend a lot on what you can afford. You can buy simple filtering systems for as little as $10 or large, fancy machines costing thousands of dollars. Obviously, there are advantages to having a large system that can put out adequate amounts of water for drinking, cooking, and bathing, but most of us can’t afford machines like that, and we probably don’t have room to store them. However, there are smaller precautions you can take in order to be able to provide clean, safe drinking water for your family under disaster conditions.

One of the easiest types of emergency water purification is using tablets such as those used by the military. These tablets contain various chemicals and will coagulate sediment in the water so that it can be easily removed by straining the water through a clean cloth. In addition, the chemicals in these tablets kill the dangerous protozoa, bacteria, and viruses that contaminate the water.  As you may have heard, one of the major problems in disaster areas can be diseases spread as a result of drinking impure water. Tablets come in packages of 30 for less than $10, and each tablet will purify a little over a quart of drinking water.

Your body needs between 2 and 3 quarts of water every day to keep your body systems working properly. Therefore, it’s critical that you have plans in place to provide safe, clean water for your family should the need arise. By looking online you will find a number of different emergency water purification systems that will prove priceless if a disaster happens.