Water for emergencies and disasters is one of the first and most important preparedness issues to address. Without clean, safe, drinking water, you and your family cannot survive. It is very, very important to consider an emergency water supply!
We are going to be talking about water supply ideas and several of them, because we also feel like you shouldn’t put your eggs all in one basket in case one option will not work in a certain situations, or for a backup if one source runs out!
So the first idea for water supply is considering both and large amount of water quickly and cheaply as well as considering storage. From our polls that we presented in our Be Prepared post, the two most important concerns regarding preparing were money and space for many of you. So this first idea addresses both!
So how much water should you store?? Well, FEMA recommends one gallon of water per person per day and at least three-days worth. When we introduced this topic in our previous Be Prepared post, we said that we personally do not think this is enough at all and that you should plan on at least three months in each area of life. That is why many options are going to need a back-up plan too to help you get to a three month supply!
So for our family, 1 gallon a day x 90 days is 90 gallons per person x 7 people = 630 gallons of water. This is the minimum we would want for our family…. obviously, storing 630 gallons is going to be difficult for anyone. But we have many options to share with you!
What if you could store 100 gallons of water and take up a foot of space in storage doing so?? Well, that is where one of the best options for quick, space-saving water storage comes in from our research and experience on this topic for the last few years.
It is called a WaterBOB!
These little handy dandy WaterBOBs are a fantastic way to go!
Basically, they will store 100 gallons of emergency water in your bathtub, but in a clean way and with easy access using a siphon pump to get the exact amount of water you need. But you store it in the small box it comes in and only get it out in an emergency. It can be reused as you just drain the water out, but we haven’t had to used ours yet.
So in the midst of a disaster, quickly get a water supply ready before water is gone! Place the Water Bob in any standard bathtub, attach the fill socket to the faucet and fill the bladder to capacity, 100 gallons, in approximately 20-30 minutes. A siphon pump is included to easily dispense the water into jugs or pitchers. Constructed of heavy duty food grade plastic that is FDA compliant and can store water up to 16 weeks.
Yes, the negative part is that you are using your bathtub for a water storage in an emergency, but you will most likely need the water rather than the bathtub in situations like this!
The WaterBob is $21.95 plus $6.50 shipping on the WaterBOB website which is $28.45 each shipped… which is not a bad price at all for 100 gallons of water that can be stored for up to 16 weeks!
Price when purchased from the WaterBOB website (But a better price on Amazon)
Price when purchased from Amazon with free shipping options
BUT… we would actually recommend buying it from Amazon – pay $23.30 and get FREE shipping for Prime Members or Free Shipping with a $25 or more order….. and if you need to get to $25, we recommend buying these emergency heat reflective blankets, you get 10 for $6.60 – which is around .66 each vs. $2.97 each at Walmart. So for about the same price you will pay on the WaterBOB site, you can get 10 heat reflective emergency blankets too by going with Amazon instead!
Watch the video on the WaterBOB on the WaterBOB website HERE.
We personally invested in 2 of these because we feel like we need that 630 gallons of water and we have 2 bathtubs and so this very easily solves 200 gallons of it! It is a small investment and one of the best for holding that much water!
You could actually drink the water from your bathtub spigot safely in emergencies too! But we will be talking about some affordable and convenient filtering options during while we are talking about water as well! It comes in a smallish box and can easily be stowed in a cupboard, cabinet, under the bed, etc.!
Please note, this is one option for water storage – and we are highlighting this first because it is one of the best for storage space, price and convenience!
For review, the best overall value for purchasing is Amazon when you consider shipping costs from other sites. Amazon comes out cheaper!
Head to Amazon HERE for the WaterBOB Emergency Water Supply for $23.30 and FREE shipping for Prime Members = WaterBOB for $23.30 each shipped FREE!
If you are not a Prime Member, you can get FREE shipping when you buy $25 worth of stuff from Amazon (you only need $1.70 more) but one thing to get as we will recommend it later anyway, is the emergency heat reflective blankets for $6.60 for 10 of them HERE (Walmart sells these for $2.97 EACH, so this is an amazing value!). Or, if you are like us and want 2 or more WaterBOB’s then your $25 problem is solved 🙂
Share your ideas too!! How are you storing water or what ideas have you seen?
See the full Be Prepared Series, Articles and Topics for many tips and ideas in all areas of life!
Karen L. Overby
Hey… thanks for giving the complete description about water-bob… this water-bob is very helpful to reserve the huge volume of water.. And also, help people who have faced this type of situation continuously or the people who lives away from the city.