Water storage
How much water a household needs to have standing by, and what that looks like in containers you can actually buy.
Two weeks is the sensible floor. A month is better.
224litresminimum, for 4 people for 14 days
- Comfortable
- 560 litres
- 20 L jerry cans
- 12
- Or water butts
- 1.1
- A full bath holds
- about 80 litres
The minimum is a survival figure, not a living one. Four litres a day covers drinking and basic cooking. It does not cover washing clothes, flushing anything, or keeping a household clean, and sanitation is what makes people ill when water gets tight.
Fill everything in the first hour of an outage. Pressure in the pipes is finite and falling, and it is the only part of this with a deadline.
How this is worked out
4 litres per person per day as the minimum: 2 for drinking, 2 for cooking and basic hygiene. 10 litres is the realistic comfort figure.
4 people for 14 days: 4 x 14 x 4 = 224 litres, which is about twelve 20-litre jerry cans, or one water butt.
Container counts assume 20 litre cans and a 210 litre butt. Rotate stored tap water every 6 to 12 months, or dose it when you fill it.
Every figure here comes from Water: how much to store, which gives the reasoning and the sources.