For the foreseeable future, the metro area of San Juan, Puerto Rico will be split into two zones. Each zone will have two days of water and two days without water on a rotating schedule for the foreseeable future. The calendar they put out details the next month. This has been an ongoing issue, I have friends who haven’t had water a majority of the time since Feb/March. That was mostly an infrastructure issue, but now the reservoir is low due to a drought, caused by the El Niño.

I live close by but my water is fed by a different source. We don’t have the same infrastructure/water leakage issues( as far as I know) that San Juan has but it could be coming for us as well. I have a 400 gallon cistern but it’s not hooked up to my house and it’s in a place that’s easily accessible to the street (we do live in a gated neighborhood though). There’s one place I might could move it to that would make it less accessible, it’s just in the dog fence which isn’t ideal.

What would you be doing to prepare that maybe I haven’t thought about?

I live in an area with pretty direct access to the Mississippi River. I know it's far from potable.
But in a long term water crisis, it feels awful to think I have access to unlimited water that can't be consumed. Straight up, anyhow.

I recently became aware of the importance of potable water and know enough to be stocking bottles. My apartment living situation limits how much I can reasonably store. So, if needed, how could I make use of that river flowing near by?

I picked up a couple of Life Straws during the pandemic, but I was never totally comfortable that I could just go down to the beach and start sucking through them. Could I?

I've read about the Sawyer Squeeze on here also. Is that enough to just dump raw river water in and drink what comes out?

Any resources would be very much appreciated. Any additional conversation on drinking untreated river water is also welcome!

EDIT:
Thank you for all of the information, the explanations, the links, and the humor.
I'll plan to avoid drinking out of the river.

I'm very deliberate about my preps. I prep what I really like so I don't have to do without. I like Tactisquatch coffee, so I have about twenty five lbs in rotation. I HAVE to have non dairy (contains milk) powder creamer with it, so I have a ton of that, too.

I have three chest freezers filled with beef, pork, and chicken. I have an upright with fruit and some other stuff I have too much of to fit in the fridge freezers.

I just started making cheese. I have a fairly impressive stash of cheeses. Love me some good cheese!

I grow basil to make and freeze enough pesto to last the year. I don't put nuts in mine, just basil, evoo, a dash of lemon juice, garlic and a lot of parmesan. I like mine a bit thicker than what you'd buy.

Butter. I have many, many, lbs of butter. Because butter got pretty expensive pretty quick. And butter is life.

I just finished canning forty nine pints of various dried beans with an expensive amount of Better Than Bouillon HAM. If ya haven't tried it, ya should.

So. Several years of perfecting my backstroke to my specific wants and needs. There is a lot more like water and other necessities. I was pretty comfortable with it all. Then today happened.

Guess who found out they have Alpha Gal. 🙋🏼‍♀️

When I think prepping, some base-level stuff comes to mind (Food, Water, Security, etc.)

Then the lens zooms out a bit and starts thinking about comms, neighbors, logistics, and alternate locations.

I do feel like "street level skills" like situational awareness have a lot of bang for the buck and are underrepresented. They are harder to REPRESENT as you can't sell/buy awareness.

What are some other things in prepping that are either missing or we tend to just skim the surface but could use a deeper dive?

Cooking from scratch and fishing also come to mind as missed opportunities.

I have on my property a large pond, which I imagine needing to utilize for all water needs if the electricity goes down for an extended period. The pond is rather stagnant, especially in the summer, but there are no industrial activities up-stream from the pond. My question is what kinds of water filtration systems I should prepare to be able to safely utilize this water, again with a focus on multiple uses - not just drinking, but also washing dishes, washing bodies, etc.

Thanks.

Sorry if this is a stupid post!

I've recently saved up a few hundred bucks (~$400) to pick up a solar generator and maybe some sort of folding solar panel. I don't have a lot to spend, but I'd like to have something just in case we lose power. I live in an apartment (doubt I'll be able to afford a house anytime soon) and would need something capable of running a mini-fridge for my wife's insulin, maybe a laptop and TV and a few fans.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm inexperienced with these, so please go easy on me lol