An Emergency water supply is a priority in any survival situation.

You can live for several weeks without food, but without water you will only last about three or four days. The sooner you can secure an emergency water supply the better your chances for survival.  A typical person will lose 2-3 liters of water per day under ordinary circumstances, but more in very hot or dry weather. Without water you will soon begin to experience dehydration resulting in lethargy, headaches, dizziness, confusion, and eventually death. Even mild dehydration impairs concentration, which is dangerous in a survival situation, where clear thinking is a must. Dark yellow or brown urine indicates dehydration. Because of these risks, a safe supply of drinking water must be located as soon as a shelter has been found. (or even before, depending on conditions).

Once you have secured your emergency water supply, whether it is a river or stream, rain collection, or by making a condensation trap or other means, it must be purified before you drink it. It will do you no good to drink 3 ounces of contaminated water, and then lose 10 times that over the next 12 hours becuase you have diarrhea all of a sudden.

Contaminated water contains viruses and pathogens that can make your already bad day get a lot worse. It is possible to get Typhoid, Cholera, and Salmonella from drinking contaminated water. A small brook or stream may look very clean, but if there is a carcass of a dead animal upstream for example, the water may actually be contaminated.

The most common way to purify water in a survival situation is to heat it to the boiling point. This means finding some sort of container to hold water so it can be placed over a fire. If you are at a higher elevation, the boiling point for water is lower, and will require less heat.  Water can also be purified with solar distillation, portable pump filters like the Katadyn water filter  , or chemical packs. Solar distillation is acheived by placing water in a transparent plastic bottle, oxygenating by shaking, and then placing in direct sunlight for 6 hours. The higher water temperature and solar radiation combine to kill the microbes in the water.

At Home:

You should always keep an emergency water supply in your home.  FEMA recommends keeping enough water for every person for three days.  If you have the room to store it, and you are going to go through the exercise of preparing an emergency water supply, why not make it 6 days ?   1 gallon of fresh water per person per day.   The easiest way to do it: Go to the store and buy 6 sealed gallons of drinking water for every person in your home.

The only problem with gallon containers is possible contamination of the entire gallon after it is opened.   For this reason a better option is to buy 2 cases of 24 16oz bottles of drinking water for each person.   1 gallon = 128 oz.     That equates to 8 16oz bottles.   So to have an adequate emergency water supply for 6 days will require 2 cases of bottled water for each person.    Keeping the water in individual 16oz bottles greatly reduces the risk of contamination.

Keep your eyes open for a sale, cases of water are put on Sale all the time at grocery stores, Target, Wal-Mart etc.   You should be able to find a case for less than $5 bucks, sometimes cheaper.   If you are preparing your survival supplies for 5 people, you will have their water needs handled and ready for under $50.00.  Obviously, you should put some thought into your own situation, is 6 days the obsolute longest time that you would ever need to rely on your emegency supplies under any forseeable circumstance ?   Do you have a well on your property ?  Can you draw water from your well by using a hand water pump or a solar water pump ?  If not, perhaps after you get your supplies squared away, that might be something to think about.     

Use the first in / first out method to cycle your water supply and keep it fresh.   Buy a case of water at least once a month and add it to your stored water supply, at the same time remove the oldest case and use it for everyday drinking water.   This will prevent you from having a large supply of stored water that has past its expiration date.