- it's more important to survival than food. Our bodies can survive without food for a couple of weeks. But without water, in just a couple of days we'd be in real trouble. Many experts suggest keeping a two week supply. We're talking about one gallon of water per person per day; two gallons per person would be much better. Our water drums or barrels are light (when empty) and rugged. They are also light proof to keep algae growth down. These drums are great for storing water long term. Osmonics also has a very informative area on this subject. And lastly, Alan Hagan's book has the best section on water that I've seen. The guy does his homework.

A full 55 gallon drum of water weighs over 300 lbs. Not everyone can man-handle them. There's three practical ways of getting water out of these drums. You can put a spigot in the top, use a drum pump, or cut a piece of water hose and siphon it out.

If you're going to use a spigot, you must put the drum on it's side and have it on some kind of stand in order to get a water container under it. Lifting a 300 pound drum and putting it on a stand is easier said than done. There's a plug that will pop out of the drum cap making a hole to screw in the spigot. Our spigot is made out of plastic.

The drum pump is also made out of plastic. It has several adapters to fit it to different drums. It has two different tubes for different sized drums and connectors to attach them together. The drum pump is slow, pumping about 2/3 cup water per stroke. But if all you want is a small amount of water at one time, this should work well for you.

Siphoning water using an 8 foot piece of garden hose really works well while the drum is over half full. It's easy to get the siphon started and the water runs quickly. When the water gets so low that this no longer works, the drum should be light enough to put on it's side and pour the water out.

        The 15 gallon drum is a lot easier to lug around than the 55 gallon drum. I've taken two of these drums on several camping trips and they are great. They are not so big that a man can't pour water out of them when they are full. But they do weigh around 100 lbs when they're full so it does take effort to move them. There are two swivel handles in the top of these drums for carrying them. My two 15 gallon drums still have their handles after the before mentioned outings - attesting to their durability.