Bottled water vs Tap water

[TexasT]

Yeah, live upstream somewhere.

[gunney_m]

You should try well water, ive drank it most of my life tap water tasting like vommit huh try well water it tastes like dirt and smells like rotten eggs.

[SilentSoul]

I have a buddy that on his property has a hand dug, well hand chiseled solid rock well. like 100 foot deep too. Its even dated in the rock 1923. Crazy

[gunney_m]

*amn, that's pretty old.

[SilentSoul]

And it hold water like a champ, he emptied it this year watering a few head of cattle due to the drought. Just amazes me someone made something like that with their hands. Just don't em like they use to.

[gunney_m]

And that's the *amn truth:Colt 45.

[SilentSoul]

I have been buying cases of bottled water for the last few months every other time i got to the market, just a good feeling having them around. I also keep bleach on hand and a katadyne is on the list.

[gunney_m]

My list is MRE's, Water, Flashlight's, Bullets,Batteries,Cdplayer,Boxunderbed

[SilentSoul]

Bullets are always on the list, I have a few cases of Mre's but they are hard to come by for a good price.(Free)

[damage855]

I have a small creek behind my home for water supply if the power or well goes out. made a filtration system a few years ago to pump the water out and it even hooks up to the home pluming system. took the water out of the system to have tested and tested cleaner than my well water! gues I should put some of those filtering systems on my well.

[dogboy22]

I remember reading something a while back saying that tap water is better for you because it provides your teeth with the correct amount of flouride in order to keep them healthy. When bottled water is "purified", the flouride is removed.

[SilentSoul]

I hear bottled water IS tap water in most cases.

[HandsomeRob]

As for taste I've never had water that tasted awful. I never buy bottled water. As someone posted earlier though in situations where disasters have happened, like New Orleans, I can see the use of bottled water because their water table could be contaminated. There are a lot of people though in my area who drink bottled water because is supposed to be better for you and so forth. Thats a bunch of nonsense to me. I believe that most people drink bottled water nowadays cause it the cool thing to do and the people in my area you see drinking bottled water are usually but not always girls in high school or college. The problem to me is I have seen no proof that bottled water is better for you but I have seen that bottle water is becoming an environmental problem. Its pricey, shipping and packaging consumes energy , and the bottles later contribute to can contribute to litter and solid waste if not recycled. If you drink tap, no extra cost, your using your own glass (that is reusable), and the only energy used is that needed to lift the glass to your lip.

Here are some links to back up some statements:
Bottled Water Vs. Tap Water
Activists attack sellers of bottled water: PepsiCo, Nestle - Apr. 25, 2007
Sustainability Steps: Bottled Water

[Darkfront]

Stored water is always a great idea, but don't forget that it eventually runs out. Make sure you have other options:

Portable filter, iodine/purification tablets. That's what we used in Boy Scouts.

If it gets rough, you can always extract water from vegetation or desalinate from sea water by digging a solar still. It takes a while, but it will work.

Wrap towels around your feet and drag them through grass with the early morning dew. Squeeze the towels into cups. There's a surprising amount of water there.

[SilentSoul]

Always have bleach on hand. And don't forget about that toilet tank. Unless you use those blue tablets you can drink it just like tap water.

[Mooseman684]

And if you have a hot water heater it can have 30 or more gallons of water in it. When you drain it, it may have sediment from the bottom of the tank, but let it settle out and drink off the top...

[Chris]

I usually havea few gallons of water at the house.

I think it would be wise to have a few setups....such as the hole in the ground and sheet of plastic to help condensation there. You would need some tablets to help clean the water up....but it really depends on the situation.

[HandsomeRob]

I took a survival skills class in high school and one of the things they showed us was the solar still where you dig a whole in the ground, place a canister in the middle, put wet vegetation in the hole around the canister(plants gathered in the morning with dew on it work very well), then covering it with a clear plastic liner, cover all the edges with dirt or sand, then place a rock or something in the middle it doesn't have to be to heavy you just need the plastic to dimple enough for the water to trickle down to the rock point and fall into the can. What happens is the water in and around the plants evaporates and condensates on the plastic then forms droplets at the rock and falls into the can. The water should be fine to drink if what you were using for the still wasn't already contaminated. But if it were a SHTF situation like in New Orleans sanitation would be a concern.

[mos19k]

I went through a desert survival course while in the Army and they too taught us the use of solar stills. The problem was making enough of them to collect sufficient water. I found it much better to simply use my T-Shirt and collect the dew from the plants before the sun dried them out. Don't get me wrong go ahead and make as many solar stills as you can. If possible place a tube from the collection cup to the the exterior so you can drink w/o disturbing the still.

For cheap water storage I really like the WaterBob. This plastic container goes in your bathtub and holds a 100 gallons of water. If you don't have a bathtub you could easily construct a frame from 2x4's and plywood.

https://www.waterbob.com/

[HandsomeRob]

Originally Posted by mos19k

I went through a desert survival course while in the Army and they too taught us the use of solar stills. The problem was making enough of them to collect sufficient water. I found it much better to simply use my T-Shirt and collect the dew from the plants before the sun dried them out. Don't get me wrong go ahead and make as many solar stills as you can. If possible place a tube from the collection cup to the the exterior so you can drink w/o disturbing the still.

For cheap water storage I really like the WaterBob. This plastic container goes in your bathtub and holds a 100 gallons of water. If you don't have a bathtub you could easily construct a frame from 2x4's and plywood.

https://www.waterbob.com/

Placing a tube in the collection cup is a great idea, as to not disturb the still! I took at the WaterBOB looks like a great product at well, holds 100 gallons and even has a pump! very cool thanks for the link mos19k.