Articles · Topic
Articles about Water
85 articles across 6 sections
Section
Community
Assess a Church for Emergency Use
How a house of worship can assess one room for one emergency service: who approves it, the path to walk, exits, power, water, capacity and a written verdict.
Faith-Based Emergency Feeding Guide
Choose a safe food role for your faith community in an emergency, from sealed pantry boxes to hot meals, with the temperatures, time limits and stop rules.
Section
Self-Reliance
Drinking Water Quality
What is actually in your tap water, how to read your Consumer Confidence Report, when to test privately, and how to address what you find.
Sewer and Septic Systems
How municipal sewer and private septic systems work, what keeps them running, what breaks them, and how to manage wastewater responsibly.
Apartment Water Storage: Emergency Water in Small Spaces
Floor weight limits, under-bed solutions, WaterBrick stackable containers, the WaterBOB fill-on-warning strategy, and building-specific risks. Emergency water storage for renters and apartment dwellers.
Before You Buy: 20 Land Due Diligence Questions
Twenty questions before signing on any rural property: legal access, water rights, well testing, septic suitability, flood plain, wildfire risk, and title.
Bleach Water Disinfection: The EPA Protocol
The exact dosage, the right bleach, the contact time, and how to tell if it worked. The EPA protocol for disinfecting water with household bleach, done correctly. Includes a printable reference card.
Boil Water Advisory: The Complete Protocol
What a boil water advisory actually requires across every household use, drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, bathing, baby formula, pets, and the flushing protocol when it lifts.
Build a Two-Bucket Gravity Water Filter
Step-by-step two-bucket gravity filter build: drill, install elements, spigot, red dye test. Element selection, flow rate, troubleshooting, maintenance, and clear limitations.
Choosing a Turbine
Head and flow narrow the choice before preference enters into it. Impulse against reaction machines, the application domain chart that sorts Pelton, Turgo, cross-flow and propeller turbines by site, why part-flow performance matters more than peak efficiency, and the case for running a pump backward.
Combined Heat and Power
Accounting for the reject heat that is most of the energy in any biomass generator. Reading the two efficiency figures correctly, sizing to year-round thermal baseload rather than electrical load, the seasonal mismatch, and the water hygiene obligations a preheat tank carries.
Deep Well Hand Pumps: Simple Pump vs. Bison Pump
A hand pump installed alongside your existing electric pump means water with no power, indefinitely. Static water level, output per stroke, installation, and the Simple Pump vs. Bison Pump comparison.
Dialysis and Kidney Disease Preparedness
Planning guidance for keeping dialysis care continuous during a disruption: identifying a second center, knowing your center's emergency plan, backup power and water for home dialysis, the emergency diet, and the records you carry.
Drowning, Water Emergencies & Recovery Position
First aid for drowning and water emergencies, recognition, rescue priorities, CPR after submersion, secondary drowning awareness, and the recovery position for unconscious breathing persons.
Emergency Hygiene: How to Stay Clean When Water Is Limited
Handwashing priorities, sponge bathing technique, no-rinse products, dental hygiene, menstrual care, infant care, elder care, and dishwashing under water rationing.
Emergency Water Sources: Where to Find Water When the Tap Stops
Your water heater holds 30–80 gallons. Your pipes hold more. A practical inventory of every emergency water source, with honest yield estimates and treatment requirements for each.
Emergency Water Storage: The Complete Guide
Container types, placement, rotation schedules, and the mistakes most households make. The definitive guide to building a stored water supply that works when you need it.
Emergency Water Treatment: Every Method Compared
Boiling, bleach, tablets, filters, and UV each remove different threats. Know which method to use, when to use it, and what none of them can handle.
Freeze Protection for Home Water Systems
How to protect pipes, stored water, well pumps, and rain barrels from freezing. A fall winterization checklist and what to do when a pipe freezes anyway.
Gravity Water Filters: How They Work and What to Look For
How gravity filters work, what certifications actually mean, what most models don't remove, and how to size a system for your household. The honest guide before you buy.
Home Water Filtration: Understanding Your Options
How carbon, reverse osmosis, ceramic, hollow fiber, UV, and distillation technologies work. What each removes and misses, how to read NSF/ANSI certifications, and how to match treatment to your water source.
Household Water Audit
How Much Emergency Water Should You Store?
The CDC baseline is 1 gallon per person per day. Your household probably needs more. Calculate your actual requirement across drinking, cooking, hygiene, and sanitation.
How Reverse Osmosis Works and When You Need It
How reverse osmosis membranes work, the five stages of a residential RO system, what RO removes and what it misses, wastewater ratios and the EPA WaterSense specification, and when RO is the right choice versus simpler carbon filtration.
Hydration and Sleep, Fitness for Preparedness
Water and sleep are the two most underestimated factors in how well your body performs during and after a disruption. How much you need, how to manage both under emergency conditions, and why getting
Hygiene and Sanitation, Medical Preparedness
How hygiene and sanitation change when water is disrupted, facilities are unavailable, or normal household routines cannot be maintained, and the health risks of getting it wrong.
Hygiene During Emergencies
Emergency hygiene as illness prevention, handwashing when water is limited, personal hygiene without normal access, waste disposal, shelter hygiene, and vulnerable populations.
Inline Water Storage: Plumbed Systems That Stay Fresh
How inline water storage works, what the plumbing code requires, and whether a self-refreshing system connected to your home plumbing is right for your household.
Intake, Penstock and Winter
Where the head you measured either survives or does not. Self-cleaning Coanda screens, the four jobs an intake performs, and pipe sizing worked at four diameters on one site, where a single size increase is worth 38 percent more power. Plus what actually freezes in a hydro system, which is less than most people expect.
Is Your Water Worth It: Measuring Head and Flow
The two measurements that decide whether a stream is worth developing, taken with a garden hose, a pressure gauge and a tape measure. Head by pressure at 2.31 feet per psi, flow by bucket, float-area or weir, with the surface velocity correction most homeowner guides omit. Worked end to end on one creek.
Know Your Home Water System Before You Need It
Where your shutoff is. How to drain your water heater. What your water softener does during an outage. Know your home's water infrastructure before a disruption forces you to learn it.
Micro-Hydro and Water Power
The Hydro track of the property-scale Generation section. Eight guides on generating power from moving water, which unlike solar and wind runs continuously. Measuring head and flow, the three system configurations, turbine selection, civil works, load control, and the water rights and permits that decide whether any of it is lawful.
Portable Water Filters for Emergency Kits: What to Know Before You Buy
Straw, squeeze, pump, and gravity bag filters compared. What each format handles, what it doesn't, how capacity and flow rate differ, and how to maintain them so they work when needed.
Rain Barrel Guide: Types, Features, Setup, and Maintenance
Every rain barrel type compared, budget plastic, decorative, collapsible, heavy-duty. What features actually matter, how to connect to your downspout, daisy-chaining, and winter shutdown.
Rain Barrel Setup Guide
A one-afternoon guide to installing a 55-gallon rain barrel. The roof math, barrel selection, downspout diverter installation, overflow routing, winterization, and honest cost ranges.
Rain Catchment for Emergency Water
Rain barrels, cisterns, rooftop systems, tarp collection, and fog nets, a complete guide to harvesting rainwater for household resilience, with the history behind why humans have always done it.
Rainwater Collection: From First Barrel to Full Catchment System
How to calculate roof catchment yield, set up a first barrel, install a first-flush diverter, scale to full harvesting, navigate state legality, and treat collected water safely.
Run-of-River Micro-Hydro
The standard micro-hydro configuration: divert part of a stream, run it down a pipe to a turbine, return it immediately. The eight-component chain from intake to transmission, why the penstock rather than the turbine is most of the project, what constant output feels like to live with, and the six sites where it is the wrong answer.
Sanitation Without Water: When to Flush, When to Bag, and What to Do with Waste
How to bucket-flush a toilet when the water is off, the four times to stop flushing, bagging your own toilet or a bucket, drain traps, and storing and disposing of waste, from county health agencies, CDC, and EPA.
Self-Reliance
Twelve domains of household self-reliance. Water, food, energy, shelter, medical, communications, transportation, tools, skills, fitness, land, and avocations.
Small Impoundments and Micro-Dams
What storing water behind a small dam offers a micro-hydro system, and what it demands in engineering, permitting and permanent liability. The three failure modes and their national statistics, why hazard classification describes consequences rather than condition, and why this guide stops short of build instructions.
The Home Water Drill: Turn Off Your Water for 12 Hours
Turn off your main water shutoff for 12 hours and find out what you don't know. How to run the drill, what to track, the toilet flush revelation, post-drill assessment, and the 24-hour advanced version.
Utility Shutoff: What to Do
A disconnect notice arrived, or the power, gas, or water is already off. Here is what to do today: call the utility, ask about payment plans and moratoriums, apply for LIHEAP, and keep the household safe in the meantime.
UV Water Purifiers: How They Work, When to Use Them
UV light kills bacteria, protozoa, and viruses in clear water instantly. No chemicals, no wait time, but it fails in turbid water and requires a working battery. The full picture.
Water Conservation: Everyday Habits and Emergency Mode
Where your water actually goes, how to reduce it in daily life, and the emergency conservation mode that makes 14 days of stored water last 21.
Water Contamination: When Treatment Is Not Enough
Biological contamination is treatable. Chemical, industrial, and algal contamination often isn't. Know the difference, and what each treatment method can and cannot handle.
Water Dispensing and Transport: From Storage to Glass
Four ways to get water out of a sealed drum, the transport containers that carry it to your kitchen, and the hygiene rules that keep dispensed water safe.
Water Filtration for Emergencies
Gravity filters, pump filters, UV, and boiling, a clear guide to which water filtration method works for your household, what each removes, and what none of them do.
Water for Food Storage: The Hidden Water Cost of Dry Food
Everyone stores rice and beans. Almost no one calculates the water needed to cook them. Water requirements by food type, the cooking fuel connection, infant formula, and planning water and food as one system.
Water Outage Action Plan: What to Do When Your Tap Stops
The step-by-step protocol for the first hour of a water outage. Fill, assess, conserve, determine cause, locate alternatives. Know the plan before you need it.
Water Preparedness: The Foundation of Self-Reliance
Water preparedness starts with storage and grows through treatment, collection, and conservation. Learn the Water Ladder framework and build real household water resilience.
Water Purification Tablets: Chlorine Dioxide vs. Iodine vs. NaDCC
Every water purification tablet type compared, chlorine dioxide (the current standard), iodine, and NaDCC. Contact times, Cryptosporidium coverage, shelf life, and the Aquatabs vs. Micropur question.
Water Rights and Permits
Three separate bodies of law govern a micro-hydro project: the state right to use the water, federal energy jurisdiction under the Federal Power Act, and Clean Water Act permitting. Federal jurisdiction turns on where a project sits rather than how large it is, and there is a formal process for finding out where you stand.
Water Storage by Climate: Heat, Cold, and Everything Between
How freezing winters and extreme garage heat affect stored water. Climate-adjusted rotation schedules, placement strategies, and practical fixes for every temperature zone.
Water Storage Containers: Every Size and Type Compared
Every water storage container type compared by size, material, portability, and cost per gallon. From 1-gallon jugs to 55-gallon drums, the guide before you buy.
Water Testing for Homeowners: What to Test For and When
When to test your water, what to test for, and how to find a certified lab. Covers well owners, municipal CCR reading, lead, bacteria, nitrates, PFAS, and what to do with the results.
Waterwheels
Overshot, breastshot and undershot wheels reach 75 to 85 percent hydraulic efficiency, better than their reputation and traceable to a mathematically incorrect 1704 analysis. The real drawback is rotational speed. Where a wheel beats a turbine, and why direct mechanical work suits it better than generating electricity.
Well Water Preparedness: Solving the Power Dependence Problem
43 million American households lose water when the power goes out. Generator sizing, hand pump backup, solar options, annual testing, and shock chlorination for well owners.
When the Power Stays Off: A Household Timeline for Extended Outages
What changes in your household after 72 hours without power, and what to do about it. A day-by-day timeline covering food safety, air quality, water, hygiene, fuel, and morale across a two-week outage.
Whole-House Water Filtration: Treating Water at the Source
How whole-house water filtration works: sediment, carbon, iron/manganese/sulfur removal, water softening, and UV disinfection. System sizing by flow rate, the correct treatment order for well water, and when point-of-entry treatment is the right choice.
Section
Preparedness
72-Hour Apartment Kit: Three Days Without the Grid in a Renter's Space
A 72-hour kit built for apartment renters: compact water storage, closet-sized food supply, stairwell 72-hour bag, and everything sized for a space without a garage, basement, or generator option.
Apartment Water Storage
Floor weight limits, container options, room-by-room placement, and a realistic 14-day water setup for a one-bedroom apartment.
Calculators
Index of the interactive calculators on the site. Each one works out a household's own figures rather than offering a rule of thumb, and each lives inside the section it belongs to.
Drought Preparedness: Water Conservation, Wildfire Risk & Household Resilience
Drought is a slow-onset hazard that strains water supplies, amplifies wildfire risk, and disrupts agriculture. Learn how to assess your exposure and protect your household.
Family Storm Kit: Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, and Multi-Day Power Events With Children
A family storm kit for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and multi-day power outages with children. Helmets, shelter bedding, weather radio, safe lighting, food kids will eat, and activity supplies tha
First 72 Hours
The critical first window after a disruption. What to have ready, what to do first, and how to keep your household safe when outside help may not arrive for days.
The 16 Top Water Readiness Items
Sixteen water readiness items ranked in acquisition order: store, treat, test and collect, then manage wastewater, to the two-week benchmark.
Trusted Water Resources
Fourteen outside water sources we have read and would send you to: EPA, CDC, Ready.gov, USGS, extension well programs, NSF and WQA certification lookups, and drought and streamflow tools, each with why it earned the spot.
Water Contamination Preparedness: Boil Orders, Filter Options & Safe Storage
Water contamination can happen anywhere, from pipe failures to industrial spills. Learn how to recognize it, make water safe, and build a household water supply.
Water Preparedness Kit: Three Tiers From Starter to Complete
Build a water preparedness kit at any budget. Starter ($50–100), Standard ($200–400), or Complete ($500–1,500+). Every tier covers storage, treatment, hygiene, and sanitation.
Water You Can Actually Lift
Emergency water storage sized for the person, not the checklist. Container comparisons by weight from 1-pound bottles through 58-pound 7-gallon jugs. Three container recommendations matched to lifting ability. Stationary containers with spigots and pumps for no-lift dispensing. Placement rules that keep water accessible.
Winter Power Outage Kit: Stay Warm, Safe, and Fed When the Heat Goes Off
A winter power outage kit built around heating, carbon monoxide safety, pipe protection, lighting, and three days of no-cook food. Real products, honest prices, and every safety rule sourced from CPSC
Section
Gear and Buying Guides
Best Countertop Reverse Osmosis System (2026)
Three countertop reverse osmosis systems compared for household water quality. The AquaTru Classic wins on certification depth. Budget and well-water alternatives included.
Best Portable Water Filter for Emergency Preparedness (2026)
Five portable water filters tested and compared for emergency preparedness. Clear recommendations by use case, with the Sawyer Squeeze as the default pick for most households.
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1
Brad Lancaster's illustrated principles for collecting and using rainwater, legal in all 50 states. Why we recommend it and how to buy or borrow it.
Reliance Aqua-Tainer 7-Gallon Review
The Reliance Aqua-Tainer is the default recommendation for household water storage. Here
The Home Water Supply
Stu Campbell
The Water-Wise Home
Laura Allen's guide to household-scale water independence: greywater reuse, rainwater harvesting, and conservation from Greywater Action's cofounder. Why we recommend it and how to buy or borrow it.
Water Books
The best books for household water resilience, covering storage, treatment, rainwater harvesting, greywater, and wells. Buy a copy, or find it at your local library.
Water Filters and Purifiers: The Complete Buyer's Handbook
The filter versus purifier distinction, what absolute pore size and the NSF/ANSI numbers actually certify, and how gravity, squeeze, pump, bottle, and countertop formats compare for a household.
Water Storage Containers: The Complete Buyer's Handbook
What food-grade plastic means and how to verify it, how barrel, jug, brick, collapsible, and tank formats compare, and how to store household water safely for months.
Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds
Art Ludwig's practical guide to household water storage, covering every type of system at every scale without selling hardware. Why we recommend it and how to buy or borrow it.
Whole-House Water Filters: The Complete Buyer's Handbook
What a whole-house filter actually removes versus what it assumes about the water, how sediment, carbon, and iron and sulfur systems compare, and why a filter is never a substitute for annual well testing.