Water supply cut in a few places. What are your plans?

[bellinisurge]

There's been a few water supply problems across the country already this winter. Seen at least one thread about it where an op with vulnerable family members was struggling.
My view is that if you don't have vulnerable family members AND you have a bit of space to collect and/or store water, you should reasonably expect to look after yourself for 24/48 hours so that the authorities can provide prompt and consistent support for those who need it. And then get support in place for everyone who needs it (but not as urgently).

What do I do? I have a few cheapo six packs of 2 litre water bottles from Aldi. First hint of water problems I'd fill the bath - not always possible so use pans. A few packs of baby wipes for "washing". Plans for grey water collection to use for flushing the loo. A rainwater butt outside which, if necessary, could be filtered and boiled for drinking, but better for sanitation. I have a lifestraw too but that's only for extreme situations.

I've lived in situations where water was regularly cut off. Most I managed to get was 3 uses out of 1 pan of water - it was a bit grim but I was living alone. 1. Boil veggies/pasta 2. Wash myself (inc teeth brush) or clothes 3. Use for flushing loo. I'd probably stick to 2 uses now.

Again, I have every sympathy for anyone with small children, elderly or disabled family members and limited space and resources. This thread is for people who don't need to be at the front of the queue.

So what are your plans?

Good reminder. It’s easy to buy the cheapest big bottles of still water and rotate, if you don’t have much storage. Anything is better than nothing. It’s very easy to underestimate the amount of water you actually use every day. I have packs of wet wipes, and those individually packed wet big towels (best buy ever) which can be reused as well. I have no bath, it’s no a thing anymore where I live to take a bath. I do have two life straws. And plastic cans not too big to carry if I need to pick up ane carry water.

I’m a preschool teacher and today we had an enormous delivery of charcoal delivered. Also usb lights in different forns, power banks, wet wipes etc. All children have been told by the government to bring extra warm clothes and a blanket with them. There was a press conference today, and it was made (again) very clear what our own responsibility is to us and others. Including keeping water at home. It seems the message is finally getting through even to the most sceptical ones..

Send the kids out to the loch with a bucket.

We've just had 3 days without water. We just about managed as we had 9 large (2 litre) bottles of still water, which we used for drinks etc., and some wet wipes and anti-bac hand gel for washing hands etc.

Queues to collect bottled water from the hand-out points were huge - people were queuing 2/3 hours through town to get it, roads were gridlocked. Shops had run out within the first few hours.

My MIL is on their "vulnerable" list but got nothing delivered and no contact made so we had to give her a couple of our bottles.

Any longer and we'd struggle, especially since the hand-out points kept running out.

We're certainly going to restock our supply and probably buy more too for when it happens again.

It dawned on me a week ago that if our water went out, one of my plans for using the water butts for loo flushing water was scuppered by the fact they were frozen solid.

We have bottles of drinking water that I bought before the 'big freeze' ready for should the pipes go. Thankfully we seem fine, though there are bursts in the town.

Good point about frozen water butt. Cheers

My tap is temperamental so I am using a bowl of water downstairs for hand washing. (Using limited amount of water several times)

I suggest dry shampoo for those who need to wash hair often)

Drinks:
We have some sparkling water and squash.
7x2l bottles of lemonade. (Try to keep that topped up for ds and not fall below 3or four bottles)
Milk for ds
Fruit juice and soya milk for dd.
Some still water for cooking.

Shitting:
Cat litter, carrier bags and a bucket. Really need a bucket with a lid!
(Soil from the garden to cover shit in a bag is an option I think)

Washing up.
Someone posted that they washed up by putting fairy liquid on a sponge rather than in the water. Wipe pots of the worst muck first, A small amount of water for rinsing?

Cooking:
Heat up food rather than boil food.

And a request for @bellinisurge to post how to filter/purify water for those that need it.

As a student I could hair wash and bathe in half a bowl of water.

But that's still quite a few litres. It'd be a flannel bath I think. In a small dish.

@BlackeyedSusan instead of a bucket with a lid you can just put a black bin bag in the toilet and then a smaller plastic bag with cat sand in it. And just use the toilet lid as usual.

My plan to purify water is the run it through an old T-shirt to filter out any big bits. Then a hard rolling boil for a minute.

There are other ways with purification tablets or drops of bleach (can't remember the proportions of top of my head).

But hard rolling boil (on the hob rather than an electric kettle l) is what water companies ask you to do if there is contamination

We have just been through this, no water for 4 days thanks to Southern Water. However it wasn’t as hard as we expected and I don’t think I’d stockpile lots of water for future outages based on our experience this time.

We were given about 4 hours notice that the water would be cut, by text message. We used this time to finish the washing machine load that was already on, filled a few washbowls and took showers so we started as best we could. I don’t know how we got on this notification list though as none of neighbours were texted, but we didn’t realise this until later. I just assumed everyone got it.

Water stations - luckily we could drive and people using only public transport had huge problems as they weren’t accessible and you couldn’t carry enough water anyway. Short queue at first collection, no queue second time but had heard there were long queues at some points. However we collaborated with neighbours on collections and the stations were issuing 12 litres of water per person you were collecting for and it all fit in our car. We found it was plenty for cooking, drinking and for washing ourselves and the pots.
We still have plenty left and only made 2 collections over the 4 days (one at the start and one near the end before we knew it was coming back on). The second collection they gave us all the water in 500ml bottles (rather than 2l). Great for easy drinking but masses of waste and the recycling bin full when it takes so many to fill a wash bowl!

Flushing - bucket of water from the water butt flushed the toilets effectively and we had enough rain to refill at the rate we used it. Our butts weren’t frozen as they are in a sheltered position.

We missed being able to shower and any longer would have been an issue for my daughters very long hair which wouldn’t have been easy to wash in a bowl. In retrospect, wasn’t as bad as I feared but wouldn’t be keen to do it again and certainly not for any longer!

Washing long hair in a bowl:

Bowl on towel/mat on the floor.
Two jugs of water,(1.5 pints) for final rinses, bowl of water.

Kneeling dip head in the bowl so you are half upside down and wet hair, shampoo, rinse, repeat, use one jug of water as final rinse. (Possibly it was half a jug with the other jug for wetting hair, it was a long time ago. )

Conditioner and rinse with clean water from the jug.

As a student, I then had flannel bath in the water one half at a time. (Top first then bottom half. ) That way you only needed to be half undressed at any one point. (Unheated bathrooms, shared house)

Not sure this hair washing would work with little kids.

I know I’m late to this. We have bottled water for tea/coffee and cooking. Sparkling water and squash/cordial/long life fruit juice.

Small spray bottle, I keep one in my wardrobe so it doesn’t get used for anything else, you can dampen a flannel with a few sprays and wash with that.

We have advanced notice of planned power cuts due to DH’s age and one day next week the power will be off from 9 until 6. As we are all electric I heat up soup and put it in a flask for lunch, the same with coffee/hot water.

We have a fresh water spring just up the road that is clean and 10 of those 5L water bottles in the cellar.

At a push the IBC (1000L pallet tank) in the garden could be used for potable water and I have a very good stock of water purification tablets as they are so cheap.

Yeah, I need to reorder water purification tablets.

If you think kids would struggle to wash their hair in a bucket, look at hair washing trays. I like the inflatable one. They can lie flat on their back on a bed, and there's a drain hose that you can drain into a bucket on the floor.
It does feel a bit weird having your hair washed while you are in bed.

www.amazon.com/Portable-Shampoo-Basin-Deluxe-Inflatable/dp/B0009STN7O/