Survivalism 101 - Starting A Water Supply

I'm going to be doing a series of Survivalism 101 articles/hubs aimed at new survivalists/preppers or neo-survivalists. This one is on starting a water supply.

Food & water are the primary resources that you should be stocking for any type of emergency of period of uncertainty. Sure, you might have a generator, and you might have a bunch of guns, but if you don't have water (and food), none of the rest will matter much.

According to FEMA, you should have at least three days of water for your family, and plan on each person needing one gallon per day. Since this is a very new concept for new survivalists, I recommend doing the following:

• Start with buying some extra jugs of water from the store - you can buy gallon jugs from Sam's Club and other grocers. The survivalist crowd will tell you that these are bad methods of storing water because the thin plastic will not last for a lengthy period of time, but I believe it is fine for a year or 2. Again, we're just trying to get you started at this point. Buy enough gallons so that you have 3 days worth for your family.
  
• Buy some water purification tablets - This will help provide some level of security if water supply is available but compromised.
• Consider a water filter - A portable water filter can provide continuous clean water no matter where you go.

The above three steps is a great start to creating a sufficient water supply in the case of emergencies. Remember, this is only the first step. If you're new to the game, you probably don't know where to buy these items. Check out the Ready Store for purification tablets, filters, and plenty of other items.

If you've done the above steps, you're ready for the next steps.  At this point, I'd consider getting into some larger storage containers such as some water barrels.  By storing water the right way, you can store 50, 100, 200 gallons of water effectively.

Additionally, do some further research on water storage and consider educating yourself on topics such as clean water, filtering water, and harmful water conditions.

If you want to take this far, you can even look into such ideas such as installing a rain water system that will funnel rain water into a storage tank.  While this cost money, it is a fantastic way to secure plenty of water in the future.