Water

It is now happening with water, official sources are saying we are short of water and there will be restrictions this summer and this is reinforced with the fact France is already imposing restrictions along with more predictions of extremely hot weather coming, so are we really short of water? Actually no as we have plenty of water and a lot more than many countries who survive very well on much less water and this is already being touted by France and Spain as their excuse to keep excessively high prices high.

We have plenty of water and what we don’t have is sufficient water storage and this is down to the fact that they are private companies and they think shareholders profits come before investment in the water storage and distribution systems and sewage handling and recently we have seen how much raw sewage is being discharged into water courses and the sea. When Australian teachers pension funds and Canadian equity firms are investing in these water companies and pillaging them solely for profits and not investing in the infrastructure we can all see what is happening; they were public companies sold off after being stolen from the public and they are stripped to the bare bones until they have nothing left and they will be returned back to public ownership and we will pick up the pieces, and the costs.

We only have to look at the amounts of leaks the system has and the fact some parts of the infrastructure is over 100 years old and it tells us a story and we will have to prepare for droughts ourselves and store large quantities of water for when there is a hosepipe ban and this needs to be for irrigation purposes. How do we prepare for such events? We begin by understanding losses and most water is lost through evaporation and large reservoirs are “in ground” systems with a lot of surface area exposed to the sun and on hot days the surface evaporates and the reservoir lose water. Next is to understand our needs and while most water may be for irrigating crops there are people with livestock such as chickens for eggs through to horses for riding and they all need water, so water for irrigating crops and for livestock and not for swimming pools or washing cars and this will determine how much water you really need and you can plan your storage capacity.

Ideally many people would have underground storage tanks as these take up no surface space, have minimal exposure to the sun and have minimal evaporative losses and very few people have the space for them and have no inclination to undertake the work to maintain them as many get sludge in the bottom and the tanks need pumping out periodically and the silt removing.
We can do something similar and smaller by using coloured water containers or other containers which have been thoroughly cleaned and have lids as it is not just evaporative losses we have to deal with as thirsty animals will also want this water and finding dead birds or rats in an unsealed water container is virtually guaranteed when their water sources have dried up. Ideally these need to be the largest coloured barrels you can accommodate and if you have clear or semi translucent containers they need covering up from exposure to light and the sun as this allows various growths to occur and you need to prevent this. Ideally the containers need taps to allow you to draw the water off to fill your watering can or water container you use to water your plants or livestock and the lid needs to be easily opened or removed to allow air in as the water is drained out into your watering can.

One quick and easy way to establish how much water storage you need is to water your garden or water your animals for a week and use a watering can as many are 2 gallons or 10 litres and as these are known quantities you simply measure the amount of watering cans you use. If you multiply the number of watering cans by its volume you get a daily quantity and if you want a months worth of water then simply multiply the daily quantity by 30 days to give an exact quantity.
It you use 5 watering cans per night and it is a 10 litre watering can you require 50 litres per day and you work this by multiplying this by 30 days it gives you 1500 litres of water storage you need to last 1 month and if you get a 1000 litre IBC container it will last for 20 days, if you get 2 IBC containers and stand one on top of the other it will last for 40 days, so just over a month. If you get the chemical containers and thoroughly clean them out, they range in size from around 100 litres to about 160 litres and a 100 litre will last 2 days so you need 15 of them, if you get the 160 litre ones they will last for 3 days and you will need 10 of these.

If you have a rain water harvesting system you can fill your containers directly and if you connect some together you can fill multiple containers at once and you can transfer any water from these to other containers with buckets and try to keep your rainwater collectors as empty as possible in readiness for any rain we may have as preparedness is readiness. You can fill them with a hosepipe before any water shortages and possible hosepipe bans and keep them sealed and ready for use and use a combination of both systems as a sudden deluge isn’t unknown during hot spells. You can partially bury the containers and if they are half buried they will remain cooler and lessen any heat related losses and be less obtrusive in a smaller garden and can be screened by plants.

Are you watering correctly? It’s a simple question and many people say yes when they are getting it wrong and have been for years as a little knowledge is a good thing; if you have hanging baskets and water them twice a day, have you asked why and have you understood the answer. Hanging baskets have a small volume which means they will absorb a much smaller quantity of water and while many composts now incorporate various compounds which absorb and hold water it will be a minimal amount and once the sun and heat work on it this water evaporates and the compost acts as a wick and draws water from this absorbent medium and dries your hanging basket out.

What is the answer? Don’t surface water by pouring water onto the soil as the heat and sun will cause evaporation and much of the water will be evaporative losses and not irrigate your crops so I will highlight a simple system of watering your ground from underneath and keeping much more water in the ground for much longer. This was actually a system we installed and people can grasp the concept and build similar systems from materials they have to suit their needs.
Work began on several lengths of 6mm bore rigid nylon hose which he used at work and they had all the fittings, one end was capped solidly and every 400mm along its length it had 1mm holes drilled into it, at the other end it was fitted with screw ends to attach to a manifold and 11 pipes were measured and made. A manifold was made from aluminium tube and it was drilled and tapped and nipples were installed, the nylon pipes were laid into small trench about 6” (150mm) deep and the manifold was screwed to the wall in a convenient position and the nylon pipe was screwed to the nipples and a 10 litre header tank was also screwed to the wall and connected to the manifold with rubber pipe. He filled his watering can and put the full 10 litres into the header tank which filled the nylon pipes and irrigated the ground about 6” (150mm) below the ground and as he did this at dusk all the water went into the ground and there were no evaporative losses and he used 50 litres normally and underground irrigation cut this to 40 litres per day.

For greenhouses and poly tunnels he used a cotton wicking method which is basically old cotton clothing cut up and originally intended for rags and as cotton is absorbent it makes excellent wicking material and he sealed up one of his greenhouse trays so it held water and didn’t leak. He laid three layers depth of cloths in his trays and put a water container at one end and made a long wick by twisting three pieces of cotton together and putting one end right down to the bottom of his water container and the other end under his cloths in his tray. After filling his water container the cotton cloths sucked up the water from the container until all the cotton was damp, they didn’t need to be wet as once his plant pots and growing containers were put onto them they just sucked up the moisture from the cotton and were permanently moist themselves and just the water container needed topping up periodically. Only the water needed is used and in a warm greenhouse any evaporative losses make the greenhouse humid and the plant leaves suck this up so only the water needed is used for the roots and any evaporated water is sucked up by the leaves.

Are there other water sources which can be used? Actually yes if it is for crop irrigation only as most sinks and washing machines are plumbed in and if you know where your pipes run you can do a simple test and try to pull a joint apart and if it comes apart with minimal force it is one of the standard push fit systems, if not and the connecters are slimmer it is a solvent bonded system. Remove the push fit pipes and replace them with modified pipes which go directly into a water collection receptacle and if you install something called a bag filter you filter out and food or other particles and get pure soapy water so is this a problem. Actually no as soapy water is excellent for plant irrigation as the soap deters many pests and it actually coats the leaves of the plants which often prevents many pests from landing on them and up to recently this was the preferred method of pest control before chemical compounds took over.
Where do I get the filters from? You make them from old cotton tee shirts and cutting off any short sleeves they may have, you sew up the sleeve and neck holes and turn the bottom over and sew this to make a drawstring pouch and put a long drawstring in and tie a knot in it. Take your collection receptacle and place your filter over the neck and turn it over the neck and tighten the drawstring and drop the rest down inside your receptacle and put your drain pipe into it and when you drain your sink and washer any solids go straight into the filter and are filtered out of the liquid and you have filtered waste, soapy water. Remove this water and put it into a marked storage container and use this water only for crop irrigation and never for watering livestock and take your filter out and turn it inside out and empty the contents onto your compost heap or into your dustbin, you now have irrigation water and your crops should survive better than most as they are now irrigated and without using a hosepipe.

Can these systems be modified? Yes as you are only limited by your imagination or capabilities; you can replace the nylon 6mm diameter pipe with hosepipe and leave one end exposed for filling and put a funnel in to pour your water in and it will work in exactly the same way.

You could make a cotton filter from other clothes such as the leg from a pair of jeans and while it won’t be as wide as your tee shirt filter it will be much longer.

If you have plenty of container storage for water it will invariably need moving around and you will potentially have different kinds of water and the two most common kinds are the rainwater systems and the drainage water systems from sinks, baths, and washing machines/dish washers and they are all useful. You may top up your rainwater system from a hosepipe on occasions to keep it full or nearly full if you have an impending water shortage and the inevitable hosepipe bans you are preparing for, and to protect against. During periods of water saving it is always prudent to use any washing water as the soap helps protect against many insects or predators and was at one time the best and only protection before chemical solutions became available and it is still very effective today. This water will require separation from your normal water as this cannot realistically be drunk by livestock and other animals and this invariably needs pumping from a collection container to water storage containers which are clearly marked for soapy water only to prevent cross contamination.

Your best time to collect water is during the winter when it is raining and you store it for the summer droughts so you can irrigate crops and water livestock and as this is drinking water it needs separating from the soapy water which is for crop irrigation only and you need clearly marked storage containers for this.
Collecting water in winter can happen very quickly and in any deluge you need sufficient storage capacity to capture it and store it temporarily and it can be moved to other storage containers for long term storage; either by bucket or water pump. For this to happen depends upon your circumstances and individual collection storage and collection systems and I would suggest a number of barrels connected together to capture the rain water and in a recent system we did it used four barrels connected together to act as the capture barrels and he connected blocks of four barrels together to form the storage barrels and these were the 160 litre storage barrels as he got them from work for free and as they had the large screw on lids they were effectively sealed.

He used rainwater collected from his large double brick garage with pitched roof by fixing a gutter around it and this fed a downpipe straight into his four collection barrels and a round collar was turned to fit the downpipe and it was bolted through the barrel lid, a second hole was drilled to accept the 20mm diameter downpipe from his small greenhouse guttering he fitted. This was sufficient to prevent any hungry and thirsty animals from entering his collection barrels so he didn’t find any dead animals trying to get a drink.

His storage barrels were also originally the 160 litre barrels connected together in blocks of four and he had multiple blocks of four storage barrels located around his odd shaped garden and with 640 litres of water storage per block of barrels he had 13 days worth of water storage per block. He assembled four blocks of storage barrels which gave him 52 days worth of water storage which is nearly 2 months in normal water usage, but it could easily be eked out to last 2 months which would take him through any droughts and ensure his crops were protected and his food supplies were protected.

Why not simply connect all the barrels together? If you get a leak in one barrel you lose all the water above the leak in all your barrels and if you have centre connecting pipes and one leaks you can potentially lose half your 2560 litres of stored water from your 16 barrels or 1280 litres of stored water. By keeping them as blocks you have 640 litres per block and you have centre connecting pipes and one leaks you only lose 320 litres; so it is a balancing act worthy of consideration.

More recently he split his water storage by replacing some of his blocks of four barrels with an IBC container of 1500 litres capacity and another with 1000 litres capacity which gives him 2500 litres of fresh water capacity and he kept one block of barrels giving 640 litres of additional capacity which he uses for grey water storage and the collection barrels which give another 640 litres of storage and a total of 3780 litres of combined storage. How does this work? During the summer months he disconnects the push fit pipes and pushes in the modified pipes and these fill his large bucket which is transferred into the grey water barrels after passing through his bag filter and if an impending hosepipe ban is proposed he simply tops up his grey water barrels from the hosepipe to ensure his full 640 litres capacity.
This gives him 75 days of water at 50 litres per day and this is around 2.5 months of water and if he reduces this to 40 litres per day it gives him over 3 months of water and this is regularly topped up with grey water from washing up or washing clothes, this may only be small amounts but it is very useful in a drought.

He used to transfer his water using buckets and while he transfers his grey water with buckets due to their smaller amounts he now transfers his rain water from its collection barrels to long term storage IBC containers using a 12 volt water pump which runs from a battery charged by a small solar panel; during summer when droughts are most likely the solar panel produces the highest amount of power to keep his battery recharged. He has built a simple indicator to show when his storage barrels are getting full and this is merely a simply industrial float with a plastic pipe screwed into the top which runs through a hole in the barrel top and runs in a plastic pipe which is bonded inside the barrel lid and runs to around half the depth of the barrel. This means the storage barrels must be half full before the indicator starts working and showing anything, this is marked and painted different colours and when red appears the storage barrels are becoming full and they need pumping into the long term storage IBC containers, it’s simple and it works and he can see the indicator from his window.
If possible it is better to have options and one would be to have another water source and the ability to transport it from the source to your property; as many will already know I own several tracts of odd shaped land which have been turned into allotments of various sizes and watering and water storage are vital at the planning stages and where possible they have off grid water sources. Two have small brooks or creeks running past them and we dammed them up with small dams, not sufficiently large enough to prevent water flow, but enough to hold back sufficient water for a petrol pump to be installed and pump enough water to fill the allotment holders containers. This is done by using an underground 2” pipe to feed the allotments which splits into 1” pipes and feeds their barrels/containers through a valve, turn the valve on and their containers fill and once full it is turned off again and once everyone’s containers are full the pump is stopped and disconnected.

I have a small lake or large pond depending on your definition and this is continually fed by multiple springs which run all year round and the pond outflow runs my water turbines to give me free electricity and plenty of water; I also have a tractor and a couple of water bowsers and one has the two way pump fitted which sucks water up and pressurises it to discharge it. This is taken to other allotments and either gravity fed or pumped into water storage containers so nobody loses any crops through drought and is poignant as two charities supply their food banks from my allotments with freshly grown foods.

Having a water back up plan is crucial to protect your foods you grow yourself and to water any animals you have such as chickens or pigs or any other domesticated animals you may have such as horses.

Thanks Assassin. I recall reporting a water leak once, and when I went online, I was shocked to see that within only a couple of square miles, there were perhaps a hundred reported leaks. That’s why we’re short of water: we are leaking most of it away…

If storage is a problem,these are alternatives i have in my prepping gear.

1. A Sawyer mini water filter .with one of these you can drink directly from
a river / pond etc. ( i have tried this from a water butt ,all good and no ill
effects & a tds meter showed it to be purer than tap water)

2. A Berkefeld type gravity water filter i built myself , All needed is 2x 20 ltr
plastic buckets with lids 1 tap 1 ceramic water filter.
i did add a suitable shaped tea strainer to add activated charcoal for extra purity.

Building your own is way cheaper .

Both are available on ebay ,to see what i am on about, although the Sawyer has
tripled in price from last year.
If anyone want to know how to build the Berkefeld ,give me a shout.

Post it Dave and educate everyone.