"Boron Elgar" > wrote in message
news
> On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:00:31 +1000, "Farm1" >
> wrote:
>
>>
>>I guess they could become full of bacteria of there was access for vermin,
>>but I've lived where rainwater in such tanks (cisterns) was the main
>>source
>>of drinking water for many decades. I've not heard of anyone becoming
>>sick
>>from drinking it or washing their teeth in it whereas I do know of
>>multiple
>>alerts to boil any water for drinking and teeth cleaning from a number of
>>municipal supplies.
>>
>>
> There is a fine and long history - thousands of years of it, of
> individuals and communities collecting and storing rainwater. It isn't
> bad thing, nor inherently prone to disease when done built. We laud
> the engineering of those civilizations that did it well. We likely do
> not have much history of those who tried it, but failed at it for one
> reason or another.
>
> Muni systems, however, are usually created from open-source lakes and
> rivers and reservoirs and rely on chemical treatment and filtration as
> well as pressure flow of some sort to keep them safe. The average
> homeowner - say, for example, the one who asked here if reusing soda
> bottles for long term drinking water storage - runs the risk of
> introducing contaminants, biological and otherwise, with such
> measures.
>
> You have a tried and true rainwater collection system. The other
> poster has a used pop bottle and a muni system. It isn't that the
> former is infallible and the latter doomed at every use, but why risk
> the odds if one is doing disaster preparedness?

I've never thought that this thread was about an either/or situation. As
usual it's morphed.

I'd suggest if the person is doing disaster prep then s/he uses whatever is
on hand to store water and whatever is convenient but to do so only for a
limited time frame and replace and restore often. That could be done on a
daily basis if need be to make tea or coffee or washing up or whatever. It
isn't rocket science to do and especially if they don't use it as long term
storage but as on ongoing 'emergency only' stopgap measure.