When you start creating your plan for off-grid living, you’re likely to focus initially on three essentials: food, shelter and water.
After all, you can’t survive for very long without water for drinking, cooking, bathing and other needs. But people have lived for thousands of years without intricate plumbing systems, so if you plan to collect your water the old-fashioned way, there are a few specifics you need to keep in mind.
Consider these five important topics as you establish your water collection plan.
One of the most common ways to collect rainwater for your homestead is by installing water barrels throughout your property. The best way to collect the maximum amount of water in these vessels is to place them directly under your gutter downspouts. The gutter will direct the rainwater into your barrels and they can fill up quickly after just one storm. To keep mosquitoes, leaves and animal droppings out, place a tightly woven screen over the barrels so the water can get in but the unwanted critters stay out. Clean off the screen daily so that water can flow freely through it.
Although many people simply dip a pail into the barrel every time they need water for the garden, others attach hoses—and even solar pumps—to their barrels so they can distribute water from them without an issue. These can be effective because a 50-gallon (or more) rain barrel can weigh close to 500 pounds and be extremely difficult to move once it’s filled with water. Keep in mind, however, that this solution won’t necessarily work everywhere.
“I do like water barrels, but in some states, they’re actually illegal, so it’s not the perfect answer for everybody,” advises Chris McLaughlin, author of “A Garden to Dye For” and About.com’s homesteading expert. “I’ve never placed them throughout a garden but have had them stationary in a basic spot (next to the house).”
Suppose you’ve tried rain barrels and found them to be efficient—but you can’t possibly buy enough of them to store all of the water you’re able to catch in a year through rainstorms. The next logical step is to invest in a cistern, which is simply a way of describing a larger water storage area. It can be anything from a hole you’ve dug and lined with tarps to an elaborate design that resembles a swimming pool and can hold water for you to use when you’re ready.
In fact, you can even create a cistern that collects water and stores it underground, the Environmental Protection Agency says on its website. “Both cisterns and rain barrels can be implemented without the use of pumping devices by relying on gravity flow instead,” the EPA indicates. “Rain barrels and cisterns are low-cost water conservation devices that reduce runoff volume and, for very small storm events, delay and reduce the peak runoff flow rates.”
Because the water collected in cisterns and rain barrels is chemically untreated, it’s often the ideal source for your gardens, compost and for flushing toilets. Although above-ground cisterns can be built at low cost, you could invest $15,000 or more if you install an underground cistern or build a structure around your cistern to keep it safe from insects, bird droppings and varmints.
As with the rain barrels, you should try to minimize the odds of this happening in a cistern by installing screens over it and checking on it frequently. If the cistern is being used exclusively for your garden or compost, you may be less diligent about keeping insects out, but keep in mind that you absolutely don’t want to attract a mosquito infestation to your off-grid property.
Note: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends cleaning your cistern after a heavy rain or flood if you use your cistern as a potable water source, as these events can wash debris and pollutants into your catchment system and contaminate the water. To clean the cistern, use the following steps:
- Clean the catchment area (such as the roof and gutters) and remove debris.
- Take all the water out of the cistern.
- Scrub the cistern with a stiff brush and a solution of 1 cup unscented bleach and 10 gallons of water.
- Rinse the cistern with clean, safe water, then drain and refill (or leave empty to catch additional water).
Although many people who are new to the off-grid lifestyle might confuse a well with a cistern, there is one major difference. While a cistern collects and stores water produced by rainstorms, a well is a self-generating hole dug so deep into the earth that water naturally fills it from below.
As you are probably aware, in early America, many people dug their own wells by simply continuing to pull dirt out of the hole by hand, bucket by bucket, until they hit water. There are a few challenges with this method, however. First, the risk of the well caving in while you’re digging it is very real and quite dangerous. Second, depending on where your water table sits, the water could actually be 100 feet below ground or even further. Realistically, it would be very difficult to dig this deep by hand. Plus, the water could potentially be unsanitary if you don’t successfully line the well.
Instead, you should consider drilling the well, either by renting a water drill or by hiring a water drilling company to do it. You can then “case” or line the well with materials that will allow the water to stay sanitary for your family’s use.
Creating your own well on your property offers you an opportunity to have a self-replenishing water source for years.
If you do install a well and you plan to connect it to an irrigation system in your yard as well as use the water for your family’s drinking and bathing needs, be sure and install a backflow prevention system so your water remains clean.
“While laws vary across the country, backflow preventers are required on all irrigation systems that use water from a potable water source,” says Alan Hales, operations manager with LandCare Innovations in Charlotte, N.C. “These backflow preventer devices prevent contaminants from being drawn back into the potable water system should there be a low pressure situation upstream on the water system.”
If you intend to collect water via rain barrels or a cistern and use it as a potable water source, you’ll need to purify it before you drink it just as you would any water that you find in the wild. To do this, you’ll need to remove the set amount of water that you intend to consume from your cistern or barrel and then use your water purification device—your preference of boiling, tablets or bleach—to make the water safe.
This system is effective when you plan to drink the water on an occasional basis, but if your plan is to use the cistern exclusively as your sole drinking water source, then you (or a hired professional) should test the water in your cistern to calculate how much purifier (such as chlorine) that you’ll need to add to the cistern before the water is drinkable. After adding the purification solution, retest the water once more to ensure that it is acceptable.
Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared in the June 2014 print issue of American Survival Guide.
