water water everywhere

[Nurseandy]

After the storms earlier this winter the power was off for several days on several occasions. We're in the arse end of nowhere with our own gravity fed water supply but the closest village to us (population ~300) lost their water for several days and Scottish water just left pallets of bottled water outside the village shop & in the church car park for people to help themselves.

[British Red]

. Short of that, we would rely on the authorities to lay on supervised standpipes or emergency bowsers. Not something I've ever experienced. Has anyone here?

Many people who was alive in 1976 have probably experienced stand pipes. They weren't supervised then. I think the sheer effort of getting water home was enough rationing

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co ... 358961.amp

Of course there are far more people in the UK now and water supplies are more precarious

[jennyjj01]

...the closest village to us (population ~300) lost their water for several days and Scottish water just left pallets of bottled water

That's about as extreme as we might expect in peacetime. That or standpipes and domestic water turned off for a while.

. Short of that, we would rely on the authorities to lay on supervised standpipes or emergency bowsers. Not something I've ever experienced. Has anyone here?

Many people who was alive in 1976 have probably experienced stand pipes. ...
Of course there are far more people in the UK now and water supplies are more precarious

The standpipes there were a way of enforcing rationing.

I recall the hot summer, but we did not lose supply.

Another interesting thought. These scenarios which envisage drought through heatwave, the streams would dry up too and no chance of harvesting. If there were literally no water to be had for a whole summer, then short of nipping round to raid British Red, we would all be up the dry creek.

Drought with the authorities functioning: Standpipes bottles or bowsers: Inconvenience
Loss of supply through localised network failure: Standpipes bottles or bowsers: Inconvenience
Massive water network failure, such as WW3 chemical attack on our reservoirs or zombie apocalypse: Hopefully some rain harvesting or streams possible.
That latter one is just such an unknown quantity . We sort of prep for it, but for townies it's a bit of a toughie. All I think is that townies harvesting from streams is hard to imagine. The social unrest would be way off the scale.

I wonder if Nevada etc ever experiences domestic supply affecting droughts? Looks like not much more that a hosepipe ban and a few preemptive token restrictions.
https://yubanet.com/regional/nevada-cit ... -declared/

As individuals, we can only prep so far before we become refugees.

[Arzosah]

In a situation where the streams dried up too, as individuals we might try for a dewpond effect, or catching overnight condensation in a plastic bag, that kind of thing. But it would be desperate, with no piped water and no free-flowing water.

Both South Africa and California have come within a couple of months of this sort of scenario ... I don't have links right now, but I googled "severe south african drought" and there are links to various events for the last 7 years. They really are on a knife-edge out there.

[izzy_mack]

I suppose I'm guilty of thinking inside the box, suspect many of us are, and if we experienced something like NO water, as in severe drought drying up rivers, most of us, certainly me, would have real problems. Living in the highlands lack of water isn't something that preys on our minds. OK in really hot summers streams dry up and river get low as do the umpteen lochs but it doesn't vanish.
It did occur to me watching events unfold in Ukraine that we cannot be sure of the future, even a SHTF scenario may well not plan out as we think. If there were any preppers there with months worth of food stashed away what do they do when it's blown sky high? Along with most of their gear assuming they carried a bag and not much else to their shelter. Perhaps for such times fitness knowledge and skills are the most useful things to have. I'm scuppered for the first but maybe it's time to brush up on the other two.

[British Red]

Interesting to note though that at least one of the bigger lochs is toxic right now - and neither filtering, nor boiling remove all the cyanotoxins .

I'm sure that everyone here understands the implications of blue green algae but for the uniformed it can be a killer. This is just the sort of knowledge that will be vital as izzy_mack so rightly observes

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/200 ... ch-lomond/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotoxin

[jennyjj01]

It did occur to me watching events unfold in Ukraine that we cannot be sure of the future, even a SHTF scenario may well not plan out as we think. If there were any preppers there with months worth of food stashed away what do they do when it's blown sky high?

We are not proper survivalists, are we? Indeed sometimes we mock them.
Maybe the only thing we can be sure of for the future is that it will blindside the best of us.
We just have a bit of a stab at having a fighting chance against a few scenarios. We could devote our whole lives to surviving and never get to live.

[PhilipB]

For us urban and suburban preppers to even consider using stream water, imagine what kind of S must have HTF! If all water went off in a town or even a suburban village, for long enough to even consider using stream water, we would surely be in an apocalypse situation. Short of that, we would rely on the authorities to lay on supervised standpipes or emergency bowsers. Not something I've ever experienced. Has anyone here?


[/quote]

Yes

I cant remember the year exatctly but we has a very severe winter that caused many frozen and burst pipes. our house pluming was ruined but also many parts of belfast had no water and were relying on stand pipes ans botteled water deliveries for a number of weeks

[jansman]

It did occur to me watching events unfold in Ukraine that we cannot be sure of the future, even a SHTF scenario may well not plan out as we think. If there were any preppers there with months worth of food stashed away what do they do when it's blown sky high?

We are not proper survivalists, are we? Indeed sometimes we mock them.
Maybe the only thing we can be sure of for the future is that it will blindside the best of us.
We just have a bit of a stab at having a fighting chance against a few scenarios. We could devote our whole lives to surviving and never get to live.

If I lost my stash tomorrow,I would adapt.We would adapt. I AM a survivor. So is my wife,she is one tough bird!I had the experience and privilege to be trained by HM Royal Navy in my teens to stay alive.
A selfish survival instinct was drilled into me, and it doesn’t leave.Back when we had no money and the kids were little,I poached the ar#e out of the land around here. Some months,the proceeds paid the mortgage. I’ve got the knowledge. That’s worth more than ‘stuff’ anytime.With a sharp edge,a way to light a fire ,and some fishing kit ( and I have the knowledge to improvise that if needed) we could work around trouble.


Life happens,sh*t happens. You deal with it. Sometimes it does blindside you ,but you have to accept and adapt. Nobody knows what is around the corner ,and a good job too. Its ten years since I got made redundant- the first time :lol:I thought that was a catastrophe -It’s three years this year since my wife had advanced breast cancer.That was SHTF.,When she was told what was ahead of her,she instructed the surgeon to “ do what you have to,and make sure I live”.Now that’s a survivalist!

[jennyjj01]

If I lost my stash tomorrow,I would adapt.We would adapt. I AM a survivor. So is my wife,she is one tough bird!I...
A selfish survival instinct was drilled into me, and it doesn’t leave.... I’ve got the knowledge. That’s worth more than ‘stuff’ anytime.With a sharp edge,a way to light a fire ,and some fishing kit ( and I have the knowledge to improvise that if needed) we could work around trouble.

Jansman, you have something beyond preps. You have the Positive Mental Attitude. And your wife is inspiring.
You are hereby jointly appointed Forum Life Coach.