How Much Water To Store?

[Mortblanc]

The approach toward water use has changed during the Iraq/Afgan conflict.

40 years ago they issued salt tablets and told everyone to limit their water intake and "self ration" their water. We often had people injured from heat stroke of dehydration when they had adequate water in their canteens to have prevented the issues and that the salt tables did not prevent electrolyte loss but speeded it up.

Now the philosophy is to drink adequately because there is more in the truck.

Unfortunately, much of the military surplus reading material we obtain in print and on line is from that period 40 years ago.

Water storage is a balance and does not stand alone. There is no need for 10,000 liters of water if you only have two weeks of food in your stores. Fact is you do not need but 21 days more water than you have in the food larder. Otherwise you will simply be well hydrated while starving to death.

However, larger or long duration food storage does not necessarily indicate the need for huge reserves of water. Past an initial phase, the consideration is how much water one can process/purify.

While the in-house stores should be adequate for shelter-in-place, the ability to purify what is needed from environmental sources makes "storage" irrelevant after the shelter-in-place phase is over.