Depending on where you are when “crisis” strikes, will depend on your access to and availability to water. Humans need water to survive – drinking. We must hydrate but water becomes a necessity for growing food, cooking and a degree of sanitation.
If you have access to water, other than out of the tap in your kitchen sink, you are ahead of the game. You might have a well; you can use a bucket and rope to get it out if necessary; a running stream, or a pond is invaluable. If you’re not sure of the quality of your water source for drinking, there are options available to you. More on that later but boiling it can be done as well.
What if you don’t have all these water sources? I can think of a couple things you can do. Building a cistern is one option. A cistern is simply a device to store water in. It’s the methods of getting water into that cistern that can vary. I’ll speak of some and readers can weigh in with their own ideas.
If you have a building with a roof on it, you have the start of a rain gathering system. You’ll need some means of collecting the water that spills off the roof during rain. The obvious choice would be a system of gutters and downspouts that channel the water directly into a cistern. If you are preparing properly, you should attempt to construct ahead of time such a rainwater collection system. It’s not that complicated and relatively inexpensive, with the exception of perhaps the cistern or rain barrel itself.
This is where you need to be resourceful and to keep your eyes and ears open. I have been searching for a covered barrel to collect rainwater from the roof of my camp in Maine but was not interested in spending the money stores were asking for a large wooden keg or even the more modern plastic types. I insisted that if I kept my eyes and ears open, I could find something for nothing.
Last fall, I was able to get my hands on a 50-gallon plastic barrel, complete with a cover and a small plug that unscrews that I can adapt a downspout from gutters around the camp. I already have a small “pitcher pump” that I confiscated from a friend for nothing.
My plan is to build a gutter system that leads into one downspout that will be used to fill the barrel. The barrel will contain a small overflow so that if I’m not there and it rains enough to fill the barrel it will run off instead of backing up into the downspout. Ever seen a downspout fill with water and bust loose?
A friend of mine showed me how he constructed his cistern with a pitcher pump. I plan to bolt mine onto the top of the barrel with a plastic pipe that will extend down to within about 2-inches of the bottom of the inside of the barrel. When I need water, I simply pump the handle and fill a container.
In Maine, there is general water available someplace and usually it rains too much for my preferences but I grew up there and have seen many long spells without rain. When using water from a cistern always assume there will be a shortage. In other words, conserve!
Remember, this rainwater is not for drinking. It can be used to water plants you are growing for food. You can boil it and use it for cooking, watering farm animals, washing dishes and personal hygiene.
There are other, less elaborate ways to collect rainwater or even dew. Real survival might involve you finding any means possible to collect even a cup of water. A large piece of plastic spread out and strung between trees, poles, fences, sides of buildings, etc. and shaped into a large funnel, could collect enough dew, channeling it into the bottom of the plastic and squeezed out there.
The same kind of system can be devised for collecting rainwater. Make sure you have buckets on hand for when it rains. I have said it before, you can never have too much water on hand. Depending on the size of your collection system and the amount of rain coming down, it could take only a very short period of time to fill a 5-gallon bucket.
Be creative in ways you can channel and direct water. A cheap mans’ water diverter I learned to use in my years as a carpenter, involved taking a length of galvanized drip-edge – this was the metal piece that was put on the edge of the eaves of your roof and up the gable ends before the shingles or roofing material went on. It protected bare would from getting wet. Take that length of drip-edge and simply turn it over. Slide it up under the roofing at the eaves and put it at a slight angle. When it rains, the water will collect in it and run out the lower end. Place a bucket under it to catch the water.
If you are using a tent and/or tarp for shelter, devise a place or places where you want water to run off. Place buckets to catch the water.
Being resourceful and learning not to throw everything you think is worthless away, can be a real life saver. Collect sheets of aluminum or steel roofing. It’s amazing the things you can use them for. Never discard tarps, canvas or plastic, or rolls of plastic.
One thing to bear in mind. All of this talk of collecting rainwater won’t amount to much in the dead of winter where everything freezes. Other plans have to be made to deal with such if this is where your “crisis” location will be.
As always, I will end my piece by saying that not everybody is going to plan ahead. You may be one of very few who did and there may be people who see what you have and will want it for themselves. You should be prepared to defend your property as well as your family and yourself.
Tom Remington
