While tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes are not the only emergency or disaster times that would necessitate having an emergency water purification system available, they can be considered the most dire. If you were faced with an emergency or disaster situation, would you be able to access clean drinking water to last until the situation was over? Healthy drinking water will be the main thing you need in an emergency or disaster. Get started by striving to have a good store of drinking water available in the house. Then find other sources for when your water supply is diminishing or if the public water supplies are turned off or contaminated. Use this list to help you plan your water supply needs.

Collect Clean Water Sources

As soon as you find out an emergency is approaching make an effort to secure as much clean drinking water as possible.

- Buy ice and bottled water. Ice can help keep food cold in case of a blackout. As the ice melts, it will provide a source of drinking water.

- Fill jugs and freeze water in your refrigerator or freezer.

- Fill large bowls, pitchers, serving dishes, and other clean vessels with drinking water.

- Thoroughly bleach the bathtub, rinse it carefully and fill it with water.

Discovering Hidden Clean Water Sources

Do you know where to locate sources of safe drinking water in your house? These could be sources you usually would not utilize but knowing where to find them could aid in your survival. After all, it might take some time for an emergency water purification system to get up and running.

- The water in the back of the toilet, not the bowl, is safe to drink ONLY if chemical treatments have not been introduced into the tank and the tank has been cleaned. Drain all water backed up in the home water pipes. Put a receptacle underneath the spigot and let out the air pressure within the pipes by turning on the highest faucet in the house. Then run the water from the lowest spigot into a jar. If if there’s only one floor in your home, just empty the water in all faucets into a container.

- Turn off the power to the hot water tank and let it cool. This might take a few hours. With a container beneath the drain nozzle close to the bottom of the tank, open the valve and allow the water to drain into the clean container. Some of these sources of water might have to be sterilized prior to drinking. Store chemical purification tablets in your emergency supply kit just in case.

Safe Water Sources Outside

There could come a time when water from inside your home is not accessible at all. How would you seek drinking water outside of your house? Here are a number of the most basic sources of water from outside sources:

- Water inside a coiled rubber water hose.

- Rain water collected in a chunk of plastic or clean receptacle.

- Melted snow that has been warmed prior to drinking. One question you need to consider is whether the possible drinking water needs to be disinfected prior to drinking, particularly if you find an outside source of water. Educate yourself about purification systems and don’t drink water you are not sure is drinkable.

Water to Beware of

Take additional precautions with standing accumulations of water or water from streams, rivers, or lakes. Water from any free flowing source may not be as sanitary as it seems either. Bacteria could be hiding in the water ready to make you terribly ill. You might even die from consuming contaminated or “non-potable” water. Knowing ways and where to obtain safe drinking water during an emergency might be the key to your survival. While a few of these alternative sources may not look too exciting now, in an emergency you will be happy you know about emergency water purification systems.