Kentucky Preppers Network: Prepping for College Students Part 3

Part 3 of this series will review the importance of water in a survival situation. Water is MORE important than food; you can go a while without food, but wouldn't survive a few days without a clean water source. Storing water for a student might seem like a daunting task but it's very simple and not very expensive. Most won't have the ability to store 55 gallon drums in or around their homes, so smaller, storable containers will be the best way to store it.

Along with the 3 month storable food supply, students should move towards also having a 3 month water supply on hand. Wal-Mart sells Reliance 7 gallon Aqua-Tainers that are BPA free and safe for water storage. Sam's Club sells the 4 gallon water jugs for water dispensers and these are good to buy and store up also. Aside from buying containers you can save your plastic juice jugs to clean and fill with water for storage, I fill up all my juice jugs for storage, just don't use milk jugs. Tap water doesn't need any additives to be storable, it comes out of the faucet ready to be stored for up to a year and still be clean and drinkable. In a survival situation one should have at least a gallon of water each day for drinking and cooking. Water is important with your supply of dried foods because they lack the water content that other foods contain. Staying hydrated means staying alive whether you're caught in an ice storm with no running water or in a SHTF type situation.

We take water for granted because all we have to do is turn a knob and it flows right out. The running water is dependent on electric pumps to get it to your kitchen sink, but in a blackout those pumps would fail and water wouldn't be available. The majority of the population doesn't have access to water from a well or stream, so keeping plenty on hand is key. For 3 months one would need around 90 gallons of water to have a gallon per day per person. As long as the water is put in a location that doesn't get below freezing it will be ok to store there. If you don't have the inside space, your crawlspace underneath your house is a good place. Our crawlspace in KY usually doesn't get below freezing in the winter so your stored water should be safe, any further North and I'm not sure. Even it would freeze, you could just leave a space at the top for expansion. It's important to also remember to rotate your water every 6 months to a year, the same with your stored food supply.

Not only storing on hand water and food, having a way to filter water that you could collect is also important. There are lots of good water filters on the market including Berkley and other brands. You want one that is either hand pumped or gravity filtered, so you won't have to rely on electricity. I opted for the Katadyn Combi water filter. It is a well made backpacking filter that features a hand pump and a ceramic filter that lasts 13,000 gallons. These will filter a liter per minute and would be great for a survival situation. If you had to you could probably find a water source, and filter it to make it drinkable.