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Survival Water Storage - Update
I have done some research and have some further comments of my own and clarificationson water storage. Thanks for the excellent article on water storage by Terry Fitzroy of Survival Solutions published in a previous post here on Bulk Survival Food.There was a suggestion in that article that you should drink 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water a day. This is a myth so pervasive medical professionals sometimes say it. Medical journals found no research supports this anywhere and have traced the myth back to amis-interpretation of a 1945 medical report.The fact is most of the 64 ounces of water is contained in the food we eat. That is if whatyou are eating is a healthy well balanced diet. Read thisBritish Medical Journal articlethat quotes the 1945 report “One origin may be
 
a 1945 recommendation that stated: Asuitable allowance of water 
 
for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinarystandard for diverse persons is 1 millilitre for each calorie
 
of food.
Most of this quantityis contained in prepared foods
“.Over time it appears most people, even doctors, have forgotten the key second sentencein bold above.If you are eatingMREfood reserve in a disaster, most of the 64 ounces (~2.5 liters) of thewater is already in the food. If you use a Freeze Dried Food food reserve , you need storemore water to hydrate the food when you eat, but the water you use to hydrate the foodall ends up in your body when you eat it.That said, then what is the real amount water storage needed for emergency preparedness?The Red Cross and FEMA say one gallon of water per day in their “Preparing for Disaster ” pdf (on page 8), but this for a “3 day supply kit”. So perhaps this does notinclude water requirements for hygiene? Does it assume you have also included in your 3day kit mostly canned food that has water in the food as opposed dry grains and cerealswhich will need a lot more clean drinkable water to cook?www.72hours.orgoffered this advice on water “Store one gallon of water, per person, per day. This amount will be adequate for general drinking purposes. Three gallons per  person per day will give you enough to cook and for limited personal hygiene.”They also advised to replace unopened stored bottled water once a year.Perhaps you can plan to replace the water each year the day before or the day after your  birthday so you will remember to do it. Or Perhaps we should have a “Preparedness Day”holiday so that we can do once a year whatever needs to be done that year like throwingout the canned food and bottled water and replace it with a new supply for another year. I
 
am sure the food industry will be all for this holiday, they should take the cue from thechocolate and flower people for what they did to create Valentine’s day. Let’s move on.So the answer, in terms of clean water storage for consumption, appears to be 1 to 3gallons per person per day depending on whether you are using water for cooking.If your survival food store isMREthen your requirement will be closer to 1 gallon per day, and 1.5 gallons if you use Freeze Dried Food.You may think there is an advantage toMREhere but you will need the same if not morestorage space for the same period of food support for MRE due to package density of  MRE. As well you will always have more options in terms of water resource allocation asthe additional water you store for Freeze Dried Food can be used for other purposes if itmakes sense, while withMREthe water that is already in the food can’t be practicallyextracted out.The best way to safely store water is in food grade containers like the ones below. Withstabilizer applied and containers properly sealed water will be good to drink for 5 years.Click on the pictures of the containers to get more information on them; 30 gallon container, 4 per packageat Nitro-Pak  
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