Building a household water plan before the dry season

Start with how much you actually need

Work from litres per person per day rather than a vague sense of "enough". Drinking and cooking is the part you cannot compromise on. Washing, laundry and cleaning can be reduced temporarily, and flushing can often be covered by lower quality water.

The household water calculator on this site estimates your normal use from your own fixtures and habits, and shows the assumptions it used. Treat the result as a planning estimate, not a measurement.

Work out the fallback before you need it

Identify, in advance:

• The nearest registered refilling station and its operating hours.
• Whether a delivery provider serves your barangay, and the minimum order.
• Where your barangay has previously set up distribution points.
• Which neighbour or relative you could share storage with.

Checking this during an interruption, with everybody else checking at the same time, is the worst time to find out your usual source is closed on Sundays.

Storage capacity

Decide how many days of drinking and cooking water you want to hold, then buy the containers before the dry season rather than during it. Containers sell out and prices rise once an advisory is issued.

Rotate the stored water so it does not sit for a year untouched.

Who is most at risk

Infants, pregnant women, older adults, people with chronic illness and anyone who is immunocompromised are least able to tolerate both dehydration and waterborne infection. Plan their supply first, and plan for them to have treated water rather than whatever is left at the end.

Follow official information

PAGASA issues El Nino and dry spell advisories, and local water utilities announce interruption schedules. Advisories published on this platform record the issuing authority and a link to the original source so you can check the original notice yourself.