72 Hour kit: Water

Water is more important than food! After 3 days without water the kidneys stop functioning and the damage is permanent. You should have at least a 1/2 gallon of water per person per day JUST for drinking! You also will need water for food preparation and hygiene. That means that you will need at minimum- one gallon of water per person per day! We are focusing on just 72- hour kits right now, but Red Cross advises to have 2 weeks of water stored for each member of our family.
The safest and most reliable way to store water is to buy commercially bottled water. However if you want to try to save money you can prepare your own containers of water. Here is a link to a free pamphlet put out by the Red Cross that tells you how to store your own water and also gives a lot of great emergency tips! Make sure to check it out to make sure you are storing water properly! I printed one out to keep handy (We won’t have computers in an emergency!)
You can also buy water tablets to put in your 72 hour kits or water filters. There are water bottles that filter water, however they are a little more expensive. Water tablets run about $7 for 50 tablets. Find out what works best for you and your situation. Have as much water as you can in your 72 hour kit and then have means to filter more. If you don’t live close to a lake or river you will want to prepare to carry about all the water you will need since water filters won’t do you any good without a water source.