Water
For our physical existence water is perhaps the second most important element after air. We need water not only for drinking and cooking but also for bathing and for human waste disposal. Waste disposal is a on another page so we have broken up the category of water into water for consumption and water for bathing.
Water for consumption: the majority of us get our water one of two ways. Either we have city water or we have well water.
If you have city water your options are limited to storing water. If you own a house you might be able to drill a well or build some sort of a cistern system and you can get rain barrels or have some sort of a water tank. You can even dig a small pond and haves some sort of a water filtration system. We have a well so our research is limited in this area.
If you have well water the best solution that we have come up with is getting and installing a hand pump on your existing well. The best pump we have found is the Bison Pump and we will be purchasing and instilling one in the near future. We will of then post a video of our efforts. Most water pumps run on electricity and when the power goes out you are without water. So a hand pump on a well is the best we to ensure a constant water supply.
Water for Bathing: The system most of us use now is either bathing in a shower or a bath. We have an just started building an outdoor bamboo shower and we will have video of that up soon. We also take bucket baths as a way to conserve water. bucket baths are exactly as they sound. You fill a large bucket with water and wash yourself with the bucket full of water. We will also be able to take bucket baths in the bamboo shower and use the hand pump to fill the bucket if the power goes off.
More water links on our homesteading page
Here is just a few interesting facts from the National Wild and Scenic River System website. The rest of the facts can be found at that above link.
1.2 Billion — Number of people worldwide who do
not have access to clean water.
6.8 Billion — Gallons of water Americans flush down their toilets every
day.
Each day almost 10,000 children under the age of
5 in Third World countries die as a result of illnesses contracted by
use of impure water.
Most of the world's people must walk at least 3
hours to fetch water.
By 2025, 52 countries—with two-thirds of the
world's population—will likely have water shortages.
The average single-family home uses 80 gallons of
water per person each day in the winter and 120 gallons in the
summer. Showering, bathing and using the toilet account for about
two-thirds of the average family's water usage.
The average person needs 2 quarts of water a day.
During the 20th century, water use increased at
double the rate of population growth; while the global population
tripled, water use per capita increased by six times.
Water use in the United States alone leaped from
330 million gallons per day in 1980 to 408 million gallons per day in
1990, despite a decade of improvements in water-saving technology.
Water used around the house for such things as
drinking, cooking, bathing, toilet flushing, washing clothes and
dishes, watering lawns and gardens, maintaining swimming pools, and
washing cars accounts for only 1% of all the water used in the U.S.
each year.
Per capita water use in the western U.S. is much
higher than in any other region, because of agricultural needs in this
arid region. In 1985, daily per capita consumption in Idaho was 22,200
gallons versus 152 gallons in Rhode Island.
A corn field of one acre gives off 4,000 gallons
of water per day in evaporation.
It takes about 6 gallons of water to grow a single serving of lettuce. More than 2,600 gallons is required to produce a single serving of steak.
If you would like to support the Pockets of the Future Project, prayers, encouragement and donations are always welcome.
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