After figuring out our 3-month food storage supply menus, I came up with a new amount of water to store for our 2 week emergency supply. Everyone can figure this out for themselves but it will usually depend on the space you live in and your finances. You cannot live without water.
We store:
24 Gallons Per Person for 2 weeks
Drinking Water: 7 gallons per person
Cooking/Food Prep Water: 10 gallons per person
Sanitation/Cleaning Water: 7 gallons per person
I’ve always used the 14 gallon per person idea, and promoted it, until I actually made my menus. If your food preparation requires boiled water or rehydration at all, you will want to think about more water than just 1 gallon a day for two weeks. Some sources recommend 1 1/2 gallons per person per day. Mine is a little bit more than that. “It is advised only to use the water from your toilet tank, waterbed, or swimming pool as a last resort, since these sources may have chemicals present making them non-drinkable.” (source USU, see below)
In a major disaster, you may not have emergency water trucked in to your area for at least a week, and we don’t evacuate from every disaster. So think carefully about the amount you store. Have a plan that works for your family.
We have a 50 gallon tank, then 47 gallons of water. That’s for three of us, and no pets. But we also have juices and such, and baby wipes to help the cleaning part. Vikki at http://www.homesteadingbasics.blogspot.com, http://www.backyardgrocerygardening.blogspot.com and http://www.survival-cooking.com