Being prepared for an emergency is vital for your survival. In the event that your local municipal water supply is threatened with contamination and is unfit to drink, or water supplies are scarce, investing in a 500-gallon water tank becomes essential.
Why A 500 Gallon Water Tank Is Best For Emergency Survival
When it comes to surviving an emergency, one of the essential things you must have secured is potable water. If you go without safe drinking water for too long, you may quickly find yourself at risk of becoming ill or succumbing to an unfortunate demise.
Depending on the size of your family, and average water consumption, a 500-gallon water tank is sufficient to sustain your life for more than a few months. The human body will not fare well if they go three days without water, and it is an excellent idea to ration out 1 gallon of water for drinking per day.
When surviving in hotter temperatures, your body may require more water to replace that which is lost through sweat and physical exertion.
Water is also necessary for maintaining good hygiene, cooking, and medical clean-up. Using salt water for drinking can prove extremely harmful, and promotes dehydration and loss of nutrients from the body. When an emergency strikes, a shift in priorities for water usage must take place. Making sure to have enough water for survival, via a 500-gallon water tank offers a better chance of surviving a disaster.
Types Of Emergencies That Require Your Own Water Supply
When a natural disaster strikes or armed conflict breaks out, you may no longer be able to access the municipal water supply easily. If a natural or human-made disaster takes place, finding drinking water may become extremely difficult. It is best to be prepared for anything, and have a plan of action for emergency survival in case the following events occur.
Depending on how much damage a city or town's infrastructure takes on, service restoration can take weeks to months. A family or individual may want to at strive to maintain a supply of water that will carry them through a disaster for at least two weeks time. Worse case scenario, many people may prepare themselves for an emergency with a bare minimum of water supply that will last three days.
Investing in finding adequate storage space for a significant water tank of potable water helps improve your survival odds, and gives you the leverage you may need in the most extreme circumstances.
Importance of Rationing Water
Assess your location and whether environmental factors such as extreme heat or cold may have an immediate and dire impact on your survival. If you are in a situation where you are exposed to harsh elements, you will want to be more generous about your consumption to ensure you are adequately hydrated.
If you have a safe shelter to harbor in, you may not have to monitor your water consumption severely. However, it doesn't pay to be foolhardy and take your water supply for granted. Your 500-gallon water tank is an investment to keep you alive and healthy.
If you have to ration water because resources are dwindling down, you may want to reduce your consumption of food to conserve water and energy loss. According to FEMA, if you reduce your physical activity levels, a healthy person can survive off of half their normal portions for food.
A sure way of determining how much water you need in case of emergency, is to ensure that all persons within a family unit have at least a half-gallon of water to drink per day. If one gallon can be rationed out per family member, half of that water can be set aside for drinking, and the other for keeping clean.
Showering, brushing teeth, and laundry may transform into unnecessary luxuries in a terrible emergency situation. The most important thing is to keep everyone hydrated.
Sweat loss and not consuming enough water can cause one to fall ill quickly, and keeping up good sanitation practices can go a long way. Non-potable water sources from rain or fresh water can be sanitized and used for cleaning.
Best Type Of Materials To Contain Water
Every water tank is not created equal, so you will want to consider the pros and cons of various materials for a water tank.
Water tanks are available in the following types of materials:
Fiberglass
Water tanks made of fiberglass are lightweight, but on the brittle side, so they may be susceptible to cracking. Light can easily pass through a water tank made from fiberglass, so you will want to make sure your water tank is a darker color.
Concrete
Water tanks made from concrete are relatively inexpensive. However, they are quite heavy compared to containers made from other materials. Concrete is susceptible to leaking more easily because it is a porous material. On the plus side, a concrete tank has an average shelf life of 15 years before it will need replacement. This material is suitable for storing thousands of gallons of water and requires ample space.
Steel
A galvanized steel water tank is an efficient and cost-effective method of storing water or other liquids. Great for storing water in case of emergency or for industrial purposes, they are an excellent choice for harvesting and storing rainwater.
Polyethylene
Polyethylene is a durable plastic that is most useful for storing large quantities of water for drinking in case of emergency, or agricultural purposes.
Supplies To Keep Your Water Safe And Clean
It is critical to ensure that your water supply is properly sealed off from potential contaminants which can cause your water to become unsafe and unfit to drink. There are various ways to protect your water from algae or bacteria from setting up a home in your water and making it dangerous for you to consume in a time of need.
Water Filtration Systems
You can purchase a complete water filtration system from a retailer, or you can choose to filter water using charcoal or sand. Water filtration systems help improve the quality and taste of water by removing contaminants and bacteria.
Water may be filtered using a pitcher, a reverse osmosis filter, charcoal stick, or distilled. You will want to filter your water to remove things such as heavy metals, chemicals leeched into the water from its container, and other organic and inorganic components.
Purification Tablets
If you feel that your water supply has become compromised, you can make use of purification tablets to treat it, so it is safe to drink. In the event that your water tank has unsuccessfully harbored your water for safe consumption, tablets are an effective way to destroy microorganisms that may cause waterborne disease.
Sometimes boiling water alone is not a sufficient enough method to clean your water to a satisfactory level.
If you end up having to source water outside of your water tank, you will want to have purification tablets on hand to purify your water before drinking.
Bleach
When using bleach to clean your water, you will want to follow a formula of a capful of bleach for every gallon o water. You will want to use around eight drops of 6% bleach or six drops of bleach that is 8.25%. If your water looks cloudy or has an off-color you may want to double the amount of bleach used. Agitate the mix of bleach and water, and allow your water to settle for at least 30 minutes before using.
Protect Your Water Supply
You will want to make sure to store your water off of the floor even if it is in a sealed container. There is the potential for a chemical reaction to take place between the container your water is in and the floor. If your water doesn't have the best taste, you can encourage oxygenation of your water by agitating it before drinking.
While staying prepared in case of an emergency is essential, it is equally vital to rotate your stored water supply.
You can feel comfortable replacing your water supply as necessary, but make sure that is correctly sealed off from bacteria and other unwanted contaminants. Bacteria and algae love to thrive in containers if you are not careful. Your tank should be constructed of durable and clean sterile materials.
You should not feel afraid to use your stored emergency water to occasionally water plants, for recreational events, or even washing your vehicle.
Make sure to keep your water tank in a temperate space, it is possible for a tank to burst or encounter problems if exposed to extreme temperatures.
With a 500-gallon water tank, you may not stress as much about rotating the water supply. You should be okay with filtering the water when you need for it during an emergency. You may also want to keep a water testing kit available to ensure water quality.
Overall, the most proactive decision is to invest in sourcing and storing a large gallon of water that is in a food-grade water safe container that is sealable. In the worst case scenario, resorting to using a bathtub, or other containers to store water can prove challenging to store and maintain cleanliness for drinking.
500 gallons is a good start. But you cannot move it if it leaks you could lose it all. Better off to keep it in 5 gallons buckets or 55 gallon barrels.. yes food grade container. But if you buy used containers make sure what was in them was safe gor human consumption. Many totes are used for motor oil and farm chemicals. Companies buy them steam clean them and sell them without people knowing this. Be safe and stay thirsty.
Be careful that the surface you place the water tank on can handle the pressure. 500 gallons of water will weigh a bit over 4000 pounds and depending on the base of the tank that can be too much for a lot of floors. Safest way is to place it in the basement or directly on a slab. Any raised floor structure should be evaluated to make sure it would be safe.
I fully agree with your assertion on the need to have water filtration, purification, and storage capabilities commensurate with the size of your group, However, recommending a 500 gallon tank? That’s a very unwieldy size unless it’s on wheels as pictures with plenty of maneuver room ( I know, we use them regularly for agricultural activities), especially for an average home owner who simply doesn’t have the space or may not even have the means to pull it.
If it’s not mobile then it has to be permanently found a location with the problems that entails – it will need space and a platform capable of handling the full weight to keep it off the ground in a covered area out of the elements so it doesn’t freeze, overheat, or grow a variety of nasty bugs, mildew, and slime outside and within (even with treated water this will very often happens I know, trust me). Most folk’s garages are already full of “stuff” and vehicles. Sometimes just stuff… Where would they put it? If they have a crawlspace can their floor hold it if they try to put it inside – VERY heavy when full
For the average prepper I would really suggest that the 55 gal sized poly drums are the right size and capacity to meet their need. Small and light enough to handle. Easily expandable capacity by stacking and addition, and finally, very affordable – often get them on sale at Tractor Supply or your local coop for less than $100 bucks new. I actually do maintain a 500 gallon storage capacity at my base of ops with ease and not too much space requirement. It’s split between 6 55 gallon poly drums, 10 5 gal water cooler jugs (with a base and hand pumps), 10 classic 5 gal jugs,and the balance in bottled and jugged water store bought water (lots of distilled water for batteries and producing colloidal silver etc). Don’t forget most folks already have 50 gal storage tanks known as water heaters which can serve as a supplement. Mine is set up to be manually filled if needed if the water is off.
My storage capacity are not always filled but kept in sanitary, ready to use condition. They CAN be very,very quickly filled due to a high capacity spigot (easily installed) and the remainder is regularly rotated. I also maintain the necessary items for a “production line” for the filtration, sanitizing, and purification of drinking water in my garage as needed. Please understand I’m not criticizing your article’s thesis for the need to store a lot of water in a bad situation, I just don’t think most folks need a 500 gal livestock tank to do it – It really takes quite a bit to maintain these things to suitably store water for human consumption. There are easier ways to do so for the average householder.
JMHO
My boss is going to get some new water tanks soon, and I think he’d appreciate your details on each of the common tank materials. From the sound of it, we’d probably want to go with steel, as you said it’s cost-effective and efficient. Having a concrete one probably wouldn’t work well, as we’re planning to use ours for making concrete.