I have some water questions, please.

It is usually said that one should store 1 gallon of water/person/day. I have 2 questions regarding this:

1) How many litres make a gallon? (I am from India. We use the metric system.)

2) Is this 1 gallon suggestion meant for only drinking purposes (such as drinking, cooking etc) or does it include non-drinking purposes also (such as washing, sanitation etc.)? If it is only for drinking purposes, can somebody mention the volume required for non-drinking purposes also?

Thank you in anticipation.

-- Parthasarathy Srinivasan (psrinivasan99@yahoo.com), December 18, 1999

Answers

Parthasarathy,

If I've done the math right, there are about 4 litres in a gallon. (one litre = 1.06 quarts. 4 quarts = gallon) The one-gallon per person per day recommendation only accounts for drinking water and should be used as a bare minimum. The amount recommended for cooking and sanitary purposes as well is generally agreed to be 3 gallons per day per person. Aim for 12 litres per day per person.

-- Jill D. (jdance@mindspring.com), December 18, 1999.

Do't forget to make sure the water used for cooking & drinking is safe.Iodine tablets/boiling for 10 mins/filtering etc.Lots of information in the archives.These can be reached by scrolling down to the bottom of the forum page.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), December 18, 1999.

Thanks, all of you, for answering my queries...

-- Parthasarathy Srinivasan, India (psrinivasan99@yahoo.com), December 20, 1999.