Discussion
In light of the UK government's recent advice to households to stock up on food and water in anticipation of potential interruption of supplies this winter, I thought I'd do a little thread on #DisasterPrep for people who aren't gun-obsessed misanthropes as someone who has managed water and sanitation for a few ecological fieldwork and bushcraft camps.
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@afewbugs Great thread! I might add a few supplementary things:
1. A home first aid kit, maybe with additional bandages and some OTC meds like paracetamol, ibuprofen gel and Savlon
2. A supply of batteries and some battery powered lamps (cheaply available and last ages, more practical than candles)
3. I keep a supply of disposable lighters in case candles turn out to be necessary
4. A few basic gadgets that can be plugged into the battery pack (rice cooker/soup maker)
@afewbugs Add extra stocks of things like antihistamines and ibuprofen that tend to have go other usage if one is needing to do more physically than usual. Days without accustomed resources can get exhausting and painful fast, there can be surprise mold or dust, etc.
Thank you for that! It’s always the water that bugs me, it’s bulky, needs refreshing frequently and you use far more of it than you think! Any more than 5 days and you’re really struggling domestically.
More conspiratorially I would be surprised if extreme weather was the only thing they’re worried about and not the current grey zone conflict that all the warmongers have stirred up that can take out the infrastructure remotely.
@afewbugs Useful thread. Thanks. Intrigued by the need for a black water storage container - we usually have a few supermarket (ie cheap) bottles of springwater (usually leftovers from festival season), and the use by is crazy long. Yet they are clear. I'm guessing because they are sterile when bottled?
(Note, I’m definitely not saying you're wrong. Just intrigued how the clear springwater bottles can stay fresh for so long)
@thirstybear probably yes because they are sterile when bottled. I really don't understand how it happens, you wouldn't think algae would be able to find any nutrients to grow in clear water, but they do seem to manage it
@afewbugs We had a think about this. Our loft/attic has a 100 litre tank. Most UK houses do for historical reasons. We also have a 2 ring camping stove with enough gas to cook for a couple of weeks at least. And we generally have enough tins and dried carbs to last a few days at least, depending. So we're probably OK.
(The loft tanks are basically giant one-way valves to ensure that grey water can never flow back into the mains. When indoor plumbing was invented that seemed logical).
@afewbugs because of our location we (and neighbours) tend to keep a min food stockpile that builds up in autumn and reduces in summer. Except water, never short of that here.
Currently, 12kg rice, 6kg pasta, 2kg oats. 24 cans tomatoes (farmfoods sell those by the case), other tinned goods such as fish, 12 cans various beans. 12l oatmilk, 4x 350g coffee, teabags, etc.
Freezer also full of veg, bread, quorn. Have a generator that can run the freezer if needed. Other stuff beyond these basics.
@afewbugs I note that the 10" water filter tubes (typically used with, dunno, 100 and 5 μm filters?) seem to be selling well/baiting panic buyers on eBay. Like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232599320911 .
Might be worth waiting a month before buying anything, ignoring the likelihood that such a delay will make something terrible happen in the next few weeks.
@afewbugs I'm getting vibes of the old Protect and Survive material from the cold war. There was a booklet you could order from the Home Office, and also some quite disturbing films which were classified and only meant to be shown if a nuclear attack was expected.
http://atomica.co.uk/
@afewbugs you are such a brill fount of knowledge, and it is so appreciated that you share it, thank you 💚
@mothninja awe thank you! Trogging around the West African bush in pursuit of a small silvery grey fly does equip you with a very niche set of skills, but it turns out some of them are transferrable
@afewbugs would love to hear more silvery grey fly hunt stories!
@mothninja exactly my thoughts. Seconded
So I want to start out by saying this feels like a complete delegation of responsibility on the part of the UK government to basically tell households to fend for themselves if the basic necessities of life are interrupted, rather than accepting that it's the government's job to ensure that they're not. And also to say that I'm going to talk about helpful things that require purchasing, which not everyone can afford to do. And there are a lot of households in this country who can't even afford the food they need today, let alone to stockpile in advance, and that is also a result of the government neglecting its role to look after the people of the country.
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@afewbugs One more (potentially controversial but self-tested for accuracy) thing: you can safely ignore "use by" dates on tinned food. I've eaten things like baked beans, tinned fruit and creamed rice that were *years* out of date with zero consequences. This goes double for things that are stored in oil (although I probably wouldn't recommend it for tuna).
@afewbugs Keeping these things in mind, the best “disaster prep” you can do is make sure you know your neighbors. When cell towers and power lines are out, we all do better when we take care of one another.
@afewbugs Exactly that. If the government foresees a shortage, IT should be stocking up so that it can release stock as needed.
@afewbugs well up to now it has always been the responsibility of the water companies to supply drinking water in emergencies using standpipes and tankers (eg when bugs got into Brixham's water supply). But I suppose in future they will all too busy making profits and supplying water to datacentres to do their job helping ordinary people.
@afewbugs (Sarcasm on) Tut Tut, it is not the job of Government to look after the common people, the Government exists for and to protect the rich, did you not know this. (Sarcasm off)
@afewbugs getting jealous of how we do things in the US over there seems like
@afewbugs And in the meantime they approve new oil and gas extraction because ‘it is good for the economy’.
@afewbugs a night watchman state, but the night watchman has been downsized to save money.
Water storage.
You want to allow 2-4 litres of water per person per day for drinking. The variation is in terms of age, activity levels (are you cycling around and sweating or sitting at home?) and medical needs. If in doubt err on the higher end. Also remember to allow for pets. You want another litre of water per day per person for washing and cooking. I'll discuss hygiene in a low water scenario in a subsequent post.
If at all possible you want to be storing water in a dark container, not a white or clear one, to prevent algae growing. We use 20L ex army Jerry Cans for this like https://www.militarykit.com/products/nato-plastic-water-container-20l-black for camps. You used to be able to pick them up for about twenty quid but a quick look today shows the price seems to have jumped to about £40, presumably as a result of everyone panic buying because of the government announcement which is another reason they shouldn't really have gone "lol, fend for yourselves".
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Much cheaper white or translucent 25l food grade HDPE jerry cans are readily available for around £10-12.
If it's for use at home I figure they can go in a dark cupboard or have a cloth or tarp over them. They may not be as strong as the nato one, but for home emergency preparedness that doesn't matter the way it does for outdoor stuff.
Keep in mind that a 20L can weighs 20kg, so if you don't have anyone in your household or group capable of lifting that you're going to need to find something smaller that is food safe, opaque and hasn't been used to store anything that isn't food.
It may also be helpful to invest in a funnel for filling them, making sure to have a separate one that isn't used for transferring laundry liquid between containers or anything.
You want to label them with the date you filled them, a pencil on masking tape works fine and won't wash away if it gets wet. Pure clean water in a sealed dark food safe container _shouldn't_ grow anything nasty, but will still start tasting bad over time. I'd recommend storing it in the coldest place you have and rotating it out at least every month.
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@afewbugs If you intend to survive off stored water as a oneshot mostly then your £40 Jerrycan costs more than 20L of water in bottles delivered from a supermarket. Co-op for example is 85p for 2 litres as a member.
@afewbugs something to be wary of is that in automotive/engineering a 20L black can (unless clearly labelled otherwise) is often assumed to contain white (road) diesel - something else that is likely to be hoarded in a emergency situation, both for vehicles and running generator sets - you would not want a mixup in any way (especially if dealing with containers during night with limited light sources)
@afewbugs just adding that I hear people who study plastics and their effect on human health say that black plastic and heat is a very bad combo. The heat readily leaches nasty chemicals in the plastic into whatever it’s touching.
Not an issue when survival is the immediate concern, but perhaps emphasises the importance of keeping things as cool as possible for reasons other than biological pathogens
Water purification
If you run out of stored water you're going to need to start purifying it. This is where the recommendations to start buying a lot of stuff starts mounting up, so where it would be helpful to get together as an apartment block, your street Whatsapp Group, a local Transition Town group, a community kitchen, whatever. I have this stuff kicking around anyway because I like hiking and wild camping, so if you're lucky someone in your group will already have it, but if that's not something anyone's into this is I'm afraid where it gets expensive.
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Water purification is a two step process:
1. Filtration to remove large dirt particles
2. Sterilisation to remove pathogens from the visibly clean looking water produced by filtration.
You can't skip the first step. Particles of dirt aren't just unpleasant to drink, they can also make the sterilisation step less effective by enclosing pathogens so the sterilisation agent can't reach them.
So if you're in a dire emergency you can use lots of layers of cotton cloth or other natural fibres for the filtration step, but if you have the option I'd recommend buying one of these: http://millbankbags.co.uk/ which is a dense fabric bag that filters water under gravity.
You want to keep careful track of which container has dirty water in and which has filtered water in - it sounds obvious but it's surprising how many highly intelligent people you have to yell at in fieldwork situations for using the same container for the dirty and filtered water.
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Water sterilisation
Once you've filtered your water it may still be a browny or reddy colour but should be clear not cloudy. This will have removed all the macroscopic particles of dirt but it may still contain microscopic bacteria or protozoa which you now have to kill. Diarrheal diseases are no fun at the best of times, but particularly dire in a situation where you don't have much water available for personal hygiene and where transmission to other people in close quarters is going to make the situation a lot worse.
For water sterilisation you have three options available to you, and the best one will depend on the situation:
1. Boiling the water
2. Using chemicals eg water purification drops or tablets
3. Fine filtration.
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If you're going to boil the water you need to be able to do it for at least one minute at a rolling boil to make sure everything is dead. This doesn't just mean little bubbles forming on the side of the pan, this is big bubbles forming, everything turning over and boiling aggressively for the full minute. Some pathogens like giardia form very tough spore cases that take a long time to penetrate to kill the organism inside. This is also why it's important to make sure the water is thoroughly filtered, it could take a while for heat to penetrate all the way through a mud particle to a pathogen in the centre say, so if the surface gets a minute at boiling temperature the pathogen itself may only get ten seconds.
This is probably the simplest way of doing it that involves buying the least, but if the power's out and you're using a camp stove you're going to get through fuel very fast this way.
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You can also get water purification tablets that you drop in a litre of water and swirl around occasionally for half an hour. https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/p/lifesystems-chlorine-dioxide-water-purification-tablets-E7134007.html?colour=180 These too only work with properly pre-filtered water so the chlorine can reach all the pathogens, none are sheltered inside particles.
Personally I'm not a huge fan because of the taste but that's because I've drunk so much of it over the years. If I was in charge the government would have given some of these to every household alongside suitable water storage and a general emergency kit, but people like me who actually give a shit about solving problems for people don't tend to end up in charge.
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Your third option is fine filtration, putting things through a second filter with holes so small microbes can't pass through them. I know I sound like a broken record here, but even if you use one of these the initial crude filtration step is still very important because it removes big particles that can clog your finer filter and reduce its lifespan.
I'm going to give three options at different price points here, the first two of which work for wild camping too if that's something you're interested in exploring.
£30, Lifestraw, a filter you suck water through and it takes the germs out as it goes up https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/p/lifestraw-peak-series-personal-water-filter-straw-B4KJ390027.html?colour=108
£100-£200 Katadyn hiking water hand pump filters like https://ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/hiker-pro-transparent-water-filter/ I'm biased here, I have an older model of these and I bloody love it. There are warnings about it that the ceramic filter can crack on planes or if knocked and then if you don't see that it can allow things through, but I've never had a problem with mine.
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The option we used as a camp, and the option if there are a lot of you coming together as a community kitchen or something, is one of the gravity fed candle style filters that can do litres and litres. You just fill it up, wander off and clean water drips into the bottom tank without you having to do anything. The Rolls Royce of camp kitchen water purification, with a price point to match.
https://doulton.com/products/british-berkefeld-stainless-steel-gravity-system-ultra-sterasyl
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Hygiene in low water situations.
First of all hand washing is still very important. It can be tempting to think you can save a bit of water by slacking off here but that is very much a false economy because the absolutely last thing you want in this scenario is for everyone to get diarrhea. Just trust me here.
Hand sanitiser is a way to extend the time between handwashings, not a full replacement. It sterilises the surface of everything it touches, but does not remove dirt particles from your skin which can harbour germs and then come off on food. I was always taught the rule of three - you can use hand sanitiser twice, but the third handwash should always involve soap, water and a nailbrush. And you should always wash your hands with soap and water after poo.
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You don't need running water to wash your hands, a bowl is fine. The low water way is a bit splashy, easiest out doors but you could do it over a bath if you had to. Cup both hands, pick up a handful of water with the hand you didn't wipe with, pour it into the cupped hand you did, pick up the soap with the cleaner hand, lather up and use the nail brush then scoop more water out of the bowl. With practice you should be able to get clean and rinsed with three handfuls of water and minimal contamination of the bowl.
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You want to be buying medical grade hand sanitiser too, which is 65% ethanol, rather than the regular stuff which is 35%. And it's better to buy a pack of lots of little bottles than one big bottle, because once you open them the alcohol starts evaporating out and the sterilising power decreases. This stuff is flammable, so keep that in mind when planning storage.
I would also recommend toilet paper gel like https://try.wypeuk.com/ or wetwipes as a cheaper but less sustainable alternative if you're in a situation without enough water to shower for a long time. In terms of general body washing you can do fine in the short term with a flannel and a bowl, if water is very tight focus on pits, bit, face and feet and use a separate cloth for the face part!
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Menstruation-wise I used a menstrual cup, but I know a lot of people don't get on with those so I'd recommend disposables over washable period pants just because it takes so much water to wash them.
I don't really feel like my expertise extends to sanitation in an urban situation which has lost water, all my experience has been in camp situations where you can dig pit latrines so if anyone has any better ideas about dealing with human waste please weigh in.
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Just as a quick addendum, if cooking fuel is scarce, insulation cookery involves bringing food up to temperature for ten minutes or so then wrapping it in some insulating material for long slow cooking. I wrote a blog post about it here: https://tangledbankforaging.co.uk/2022/09/28/economy-gastronomy-hay-boxes-wonderbags-and-insulation-cookery/
@afewbugs I'm old and weedy so I store a few 5L bottles
@afewbugs also people may want water purification tablets.
@afewbugs The earliest governments in human history would stockpile grain to feed their people in the event of natural disasters: that was basically the purpose of governments. But I guess neoliberalism has made us forget about that, and about common sense altogether.
@afewbugs in my recollection governments would stockpile essential raw materials—like grain, milk, dried eggs, etc—for a crisis situation. Similar to the way they stockpile weapons or oil
@webhat @afewbugs Apparently they got rid of the strategic biscuit stockpile in 1995.
https://www.subbrit.org.uk/features/strategic-food-stockpile/
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