Keen to know what people are using to store emergency water. Looking to do it for my home with wellington water woes.
Emergency Water Storage
dealfinder on 04/01/2024 - 13:55
Comments
You can get 15L bottles at The Warehouse and Countdown for $11 or try getting used bottles from companies that rent the water coolers to refill/reuse.
If you have the outdoor space get the 200L tank from Wellington City Council when back in stock. At $115 it's heavily subsidised (they buy from the tank guy). I'm thinking of getting a second but will wait for the hysteria to die back and buy like normal when it's out of the media, same as what happened with toilet paper for COVID.
We save the 3L Juice bottles and have a home built pallet box outside with all the bottles filled. Cheap and efficient
+1 for a very simple and cheap solution that you can build up and kept replenished over time. Parents did this for emergency water growing up.
Some additional thoughts:
Make sure bottles are very clean before filling, you don't want old juice decaying inside. I remember several bottles leaking, usually the cap splits around the edge. Best for outdoor storage but store in the dark well away from sunlight (UV kills untreated plastics quickly), and if you must store it indoors ideally store the bottles upright and make sure you have a leak tray under whatever you are storing it on. You might also want to add a little extra chlorine to stop green growth: 1-2 drops per litre of chlorine bleach will keep most growth at bay and the water is still drinkable in an emergency. Mark bottles with the date you filled it, and use the oldest water first. Replace bottles as they perish and once you are happy with the quantity, you can either let it sit or start swapping out the oldest bottles with fresh new ones and recycle the old bottles.
There is lots of info online about this. I checked a few resources and ended up using the large collapsible water containers from the warehouse. Fill to overflowing with tap water and about 1/4 teaspoon of unscented bleach IIRC. Store in the dark away from volatile chemicals and change yearly.
You can use spare bottles, most places recommend juice is best as even after rinsing past protein e.g. milk contaminates the water.
I saw on the news they recommended you store 140 litres per person for emergencies - For our family of 4 that would be nearly 600 litres. (plus the same again for pets) This seems excessive to me. No idea how you would do that in an apartment or townhouse for example. Not to mention all the replacing the water you would need to do from time to time
What sort of quantities would you all think seems more reasonable given its clearly an emergency so you can ration use a lot more than you normally would.
depends what you consider is required in an emergency? want to wash your body daily etc
I think this would be kept to the minimum in an emergency situation. Not to mention - whenever does Auckland or Wellington etc not have a bunch of rain either happening on the horizon.
We're a family of 4 too, currently have the one 200L tank + 20-30L in the house we cycle through in the espresso machine. It would be enough to last a week primarily as a drinking water supply. Thinking of adding a second tank as redundancy/excess but in no rush.
I'm not sure the exact logic WREMO exercised to get to 140L per person per week. It doesn't feel aligned to what would be necessary as household supply in an emergency scenario, more towards what you'd need for usual use should the water infrastructure not be able to supply.
Yes seems excessive, especially given its a disaster scenario, not like i need to fill the spa pool and of course it rains a bunch in most parts so you can always fill up stuff as well most likely in a pinch. 200L seems a reasonable amount.
Here's what the numbers represent 20ltr/day, 3ltr/day . If Wellington got the big earthquake it would be at least 7 days, if not far longer, before water was restored. The bulk water line runs along SH2 which is pretty much the main fault line, as is the main motorway exit from the city. The airport is on low lying land which is susceptible to tsunami and the harbour would be flooded with logs (stored on port land) if a decent tsunami hits the harbour.
Fair enough - and interesting. But also seems to be based on drought conditions - which are very unlikely - so you can collect it as well.
My toilet has a useful inbuilt reservoir feature according to dog and cat.