Ragnar Benson - Ragnar's Urban Survival

“Successful city survivors will have to drink lots of brown and green water.”

After hearing this a second and third time from survivors of Berlin and Beirut, it was obvious that this was going to be a very nasty chapter.

It’s akin to the social structure in socialistic economies. Everyone is equal, but some comrades are more equal than all the others. Supplies of water are like that! All absolute elements of survival will lead to death when denied, but depending on weather, workload, and physical condition of the survivor, water is the most immediate. Without it you die quickly and cruelly.

The Rule of Threes is an iron rule in the case of city survivors and water.

But there is great cause for hope. In a very few cases, water continues to run from the pipe. It may not be usable without further treatment, but it is something to work with. For purposes of this chapter, though, tap water is not a consideration. Few experienced been there, done that city survivors mention using it.

It isn’t an accident of history that many cities in the world were built around natural waterways. Easier transportation using boats and barges in the early days led to that. Cities grew around profitable commerce. Securing adequate potable water may simply be a matter of laying in securely covered, easily filled and cleaned plastic buckets, a carrying yoke, filter racks, purification chemicals, and larger retreat-type storage tanks to be used to haul, treat, and store water from rivers and ponds running through or lying around our cities.

In real life it is seldom that easy. Survival is never particularly easy or convenient. It is not a game for lazy folks who cannot or will not plan ahead.

Getting to and from a pond, canal, swamp, lake, stream, spring, or any other natural water source may be dangerous. It may not be practical or even possible. Many city survivors recall hauling water over as much as 3 miles one way once a day. Figure that on your return trip, weighed down with water, it’ll take you twice as long to cover the same ground. On the return haul, slow-moving, heavily laden water carriers may fall under observation, suspicion, and perhaps enemy fire. Great care and extreme caution are definitely in order.

Cities, especially the shot-up variety, provide great opportunity for cover and concealment. At times, large numbers of people will be milling about, providing even greater confusion. This can be a type of cover and concealment itself. City survivors obligated to haul water from great distances had best pick their route and an emergency alternative, as well as time of day with care, lest they compromise themselves and all the others at the retreat. World War II city survivors in occupied countries were in constant danger of the Gestapo and many instances are on record of food or water gatherers simply disappearing. Like smoke in the wind, no trace was ever seen of them again.

How to keep out of enemy clutches? Here are some suggestions from our been there, done that folks: Plan to leave the retreat at a time of the day when surrounding activity is minimal. Travel by a route that does not cross enemy lines and is least likely to lead to exposure, even if this is a very long, circuitous route. Leave the retreat by a route hidden from view.

Humans can walk at a rate of from 3 to 4 miles an hour. Send two water carriers out together, allowing switching of the heavy return load while still maintaining maximum speed and alertness. When not carrying, the other should act as a slightly forward lookout. Survival is about not being lazy or inattentive to details. Don’t pick the shortest route unless it is also safe. Always pick the safest route. At the first sign of danger, abandon hauling equipment to run off and hide.

Undertake haulage in 4- to 5-gallon covered cans balanced on a shoulder pole assembly. Carrying heavy buckets long distances over rough terrain by using only hands and arms is not practical.

Collecting rain and its close cousins, snow and ice, is another good, practical, city-survival water-gathering technique. One observer said that he saw it often in Beirut and even in Karachi, Pakistan. I have personally observed many rainwater collection systems in several Yugoslavian cities.

Modern technology helps loads. But just as water from ponds and rivers must be filtered and purified, so must precipitation be treated. And collecting it is just as risky for city survivors as hauling water.

To catch and funnel falling water we have large sets of plastic tarps strung in almost tent-like fashion. It doesn’t take a Phi Beta Kappa to realize that someone is around maintaining and using the device.

Collecting water from rooftops that would normally gush down a drainpipe into a storm sewer is also possible. Use plastic sheets and pipe to direct this water into your holding tanks. No precipitation in a city is particularly sanitary. Catching from rooftops that people may walk on and that may also catch dirt and debris is especially unsanitary. Clean collected precipitation similarly to the way you would treat water from ponds, swamps, rivers, and lakes by using a sand filter rack and bleach.

Except in some particularly sodden parts of the world, rain falls infrequently. Bountiful quantities must be stored when it arrives from the heavens. Plastic barrels weighing about 450 pounds when full are ideal. Do most readers realize how absolutely awful water stored over the long term can become? Thank God few people have to drink out of cisterns these days.

There’s a lot of work to be done here. Try to filter and purify precipitation stored in the blue plastic barrels as soon as possible. Let’s not even talk about water stored 3 or 4 weeks in hot climates that hasn’t already been filtered and chlorinated.

At the first sign of trouble, purchase twice as many large plastic tarps, plastic barrels, and plastic pipes and gutters as you expect to need. All of this is very inexpensive, so there’s no need to skimp or cut corners.

Been there, done that people report that out-in-the-open, obvious water collection systems on roofs, in parks, or in parking lots are virtually as much of a threat to survivor security as sending the young men out with buckets. These collection devices are easily spotted by members of the enemy forces, who quickly learn what this is all about. Many really don’t like it.

Expect them to respond by posting sentries or by tearing up the collection system, if they can reach it. The end result is often predictable, especially when no backup collection supplies are available. You die from lack of water.

Ice and snow are sometimes sources of water for city survivors. Just hope you also have an excellent energy supply. Ice and snow as sources of drinking water are not as effective as we might wish. Very few examples of using ice and snow are on record as sources of supply for city survivors. Once melted, snow and ice water should be treated the same as any other scrounged surface water. Great quantities of often scarce energy are required to melt ice. Humans cannot normally pack in enough calories to continually exist on ice water thawed in the mouth. Ice has to be melted first or users sucking on it for hydration will risk hypothermia. Cold-weather native survivors can only use solid ice when they are on an extremely high-calorie diet of mostly animal fat.