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.
1/🧵
@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.
2/
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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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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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 tell at in fieldwork situations for using the same container for the dirty and filtered water.
6/
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.
7/🧵
@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
@afewbugs I'm old and weedy so I store a few 5L bottles
@afewbugs also people may want water purification tablets.
@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.
@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.
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