Did you know that fresh water is actually pretty rare? And with a changing climate and more humans on Earth, water sources become even more precious. But would you know how to survive without water at home? What if water scarcity comes to your neighbourhood? Or your water is cut by larger scale, more intense natural disasters? What if city water infrastructure fails like it did in Jackson Mississippi, in 2022? Are you ready for a world with less water? In this 60 second read, we explore 5 strategies to survive without water at home and 5 tips to get by without running water. It’s time to boost your household water resilience for coming water shortages. Lets get into it.
How to survive without water at home: TL;DR
Freshwater—the stuff we drink, bathe in, water our produce with — makes up just 3% of the world’s water total water supply. Scary when you think about how many humans are on earth.
And over 60% of that is locked up in frozen glaciers or inaccessible to use.
Add to that government backed climate modelling which suggests that water shortages will worsen as the climate changes. In many parts of the US that is. Australia too.
With more humans, less water, and more disruptions to our supply, there’s a problem brewing in the not too distance future.
So is it time you learned how to survive without water at home?
We think so.
Here’s the TL;DR summary of how to live without water in your house:
- Diversify – always have a back up source of water at home, in case of an emergency. No matter where you live. Whether you’re on town or tank water supply. Never rely on a single source of water.
- Prioritise – manage how you use water during water shortages. Drinking water comes first. 3L per person per day for 3 days. After that cooking, personal hygiene and then cleaning.
- Store – Fill up as soon as you hear about water supply shortages. Always have an emergency water storage for drinking water, at home.
- Treat – Learn how to treat water. Drinking water should be boiled, filtered or chemically treated.
- Conserve & repurpose – use grey water for secondary activities like flushing the toilet.
If you just want the highlights, scroll down to end for 5 handy tips to survive at home easily without running water.
What kind of situation might leave you without water at home?
Drought is the obvious one. Climate scientists are worried that weather related water shortages will worsen over coming years due to a warming climate.
Infrastructure failure, like burst city water pipes, leakages, or clogged drains that prevent the flow of town water to homes can also cause water shortages.
The Jackson water crises left 170,000 people without water in 2022. A symptom of chronic underinvestment in water infrastructure and poor city management. Is this coming to a city near you?
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods can damage water supply systems, leaving you without access to clean, drinkable water.
If you already live off grid, power outages will leave you without running water as pumps don’t work.
Human activities such as over-extraction and pollution can also make water scarce.
With these kind of events happening more regularly and at scale, if you’re not personally thinking about how to live with water shortages for a period at this point, you probably should.
How to survive without water at home – 5 practical strategies
If your water is cut off and you don’t know when it will come back on, what do you do? How do you get and use water differently, if your town water is cut off?
Follow these 5 practical strategies:
1. Prioritize.
If you’re faced with water shortages or no water, always set aside drinking water first from your supplies. 3L per day per person, from whatever water you have.
Plan for at least 3 days.
After that, set aside water for cooking. One litre a day or more depending on how many people in your household.
You can use any remaining water for other activities like personal hygiene and finally cleaning.
2. Store.
if you know there are water shortages coming, start storing as much water as you can immediately. Get to work filling up your kettle, jugs, buckets, your bath tub even. Use this water to get you through the shortage.
For example, we always prepare emergency water on high wind days where we live because the wind often blows the power lines down. Without power, we can’t pump water to supply our home.
3. Diversify
Do you have your own emergency water supply? Or are you happy putting all your eggs in the town water basket? We’re not. And that’s why we always have a back up water source at home. We have four actually:
- tank water
- water containers
- bottled water
- A nearby creek.
These may not all be available to you. But at a minimum it’s good planning to have at least once alternative water source at home.
Consider investing in a rainwater capture and storage system at home. Even if you’re on town water. An emergency water tank, gutters and downpipes, and a water filter is all you need.
Just a small 800L water tank with bucket tap installed will provide a family of 4 enough drinking water for 2 months. This will give you some water security for under $1000 if there is no water.
4. Conserve and repurpose.
In a temporary water shortage, put off as many activities as you can that use water. Wash yourself in a bucket. Put off washing clothes and cleaning. You can also reuse the graywater (wastewater washing yourself and dishwashing) to flush the toilet.
5. Treat.
Town water supplies can become contaminated if water treatment facilities fail. If this happens, or you need to use your own emergency tank water, you need to treat it so you don’t get sick.
Always treat any drinking water or water you use in cooking, ice, or to clean your teeth. Anything that goes in your mouth really.
Filtering, boiling or chemical treatment can make water safe consume. You needed to boil water for at least one minute to kill most bacteria and viruses. Chemical treatment methods like iodine tablets will disinfect water. You can use water with a teaspoon of bleach to wash your dishes.
There are loads of different affordable water treatment options. We have an urn with replaceable ceramic water filter as well as carbon and silt filters for out tank water. Here is how to install a water filter, if you’ve never done it before.
How to live without running water in your house
Daily water use for a household of 2 people is 136L in Australia. Here’s a handy calculator you can use to work out how much water your household uses.
That’s a lot of water to go without, if the taps are turned off suddenly. A lot of water to suddenly source elsewhere. And a lot of simple household tasks you won’t be able to do!
If the water to your home was cut off, would you know what to do?
We live on tank water in rural Australia. That means we capture and store all of our own water. We also run our own mini water grid, with tanks, pipes, pumps, and filters.
Most people don’t understand that when the power goes out, you lose water too. And the power goes out pretty often.
Having no power AND no water at the same time is a rare inconvenience in the city. And it’s no fun. So how do you live in your house with running water (and no power to boot)?
Here’s 4 insider tips, from our experience:
- Firstly, you need to be able to easily access your stored water, without power. We have garden tanks with bucket taps installed for emergency water. These are separate systems to our main house water supply, which operate as sealed systems, under pressure. It means we can go turn on the tank tap and collect gravity fed water. No pump needed.
- Secondly, you’ll need a separate filter system for drinking water. You whole-house water filter will be out of use if your main water supply stops. We use an urn with ceramic filter. But jug filters also work.
- Thirdly, you need a lots of buckets around. You’ll use them a lot without running water. You can use buckets to flush the toilet, wash yourself in, wash the dishes in, and wash your hands.
- Next, you’ll need an alternate source of heat – gas is best but wood stove is ok too – and a cooktop kettle. If you have these, you can heat your own tank water to cook, bathe and clean up.
All of sudden, you’ve managed something like normality. Just without power and running water. You have a store of water to drink, cook and bathe in. You have hot water too. And you can flush the toilet. Huzzah!
- Lastly, you’ll need to use the water you do have differently. Because you’re on a limited and finite supply. And you may not have a timeframe for when the water (or power) will come back on.
Conclusion
There are enough reasons to think that water shortages are going to crop up more often in the future. More people, dwindling water resources and greater disruption of water supply systems will leave more of us without water, both short and long term. The trick is to plan for it now. Get your emergency water storage in place and easily accessible. Be able to treat it and heat it, to avoid getting sick and to make life more comfortable. And know what strategies to take, to survive for longer without a running water supply. Water resilience is a thing now no matter where you live. Go get onto it!
