MayDay 73114 Aqua Literz 10-Year Emergency Drinking Water
One-liter sealed cartons rated for a ten-year shelf life, the long-storage choice for facility caches.
View productEmergency Water Storage for Schools & Facilities: How Much to Store, Pouches vs. Barrels
Rescue Supply · Emergency Preparedness
Emergency Water Storage for Schools & Facilities
When the water stops, the clock starts. Schools, care facilities and public buildings are expected to keep drinking water on hand for everyone inside, for days, not hours. This guide works out how much to store using the federal planning baseline, then compares the two ways to store it: sealed pouches and liter cartons that sit untouched for years, and 55-gallon barrels you fill and treat yourself.
1 gallon per person per dayPouches & liter cartons55-gallon barrels5 and 10 year shelf lifeSchools & facilities
How much water to store: start with one gallon per person per day
Ready.gov, the federal preparedness site, sets the planning baseline at one gallon of water per person per day, split between drinking and sanitation, and recommends storing at least a three-day supply for an evacuation and a two-week supply for home. A school or facility applies the same math at building scale: count everyone who could be in the building, multiply by the days you plan to cover.
Count everyone, not just enrollment
Students or residents are the start, not the total. Add staff, visitors, contractors and anyone sheltering in place, and round up: an undercount is discovered at the worst possible moment.
Choose your coverage days
Three days is the common institutional minimum because it bridges most municipal outages and boil-water events. Buildings that serve as shelters, and facilities whose occupants cannot be evacuated quickly, plan for longer.
Add the non-drinking share
The one-gallon baseline already includes sanitation and basic hygiene. Add extra for medical needs, food preparation, and hot weather, when drinking demand rises well beyond the average.
Stage it in two formats
Most facilities hold both: sealed single-serve water for immediate distribution in the first hours, and barrel storage for sustained supply once the event settles in. The formats section below compares them.
| People in the building | 1 day | 3 days | 7 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 50 gallons | 150 gallons | 350 gallons |
| 200 | 200 gallons | 600 gallons | 1,400 gallons |
| 500 | 500 gallons | 1,500 gallons | 3,500 gallons |
| 1,000 | 1,000 gallons | 3,000 gallons | 7,000 gallons |
Worked from the Ready.gov baseline of one gallon per person per day. In barrel terms, a 500-person building covering three days needs about 27 filled 55-gallon barrels, or a pallet-scale quantity of sealed cartons and pouches.
Pouches vs. barrels: the two storage formats
Sealed pouches and liter cartons are the set-and-forget format. MayDay Aqua Literz and pouch water are packaged to stay sealed and shelf-stable for five or ten years depending on the product, portioned so a staff member can hand one to each person without cups, pumps or measuring. They suit classrooms, go-kits, buses and distributed caches around a building.
Barrels are the capacity format. A 55-gallon drum filled from the tap and dosed with water preserver concentrate stores drinking water for up to five years per treatment, at a far lower cost per gallon than sealed servings, and one barrel covers a classroom or ward bay for days. The trade is handling: barrels need a pump to dispense, a planned location, and a fill-and-treat task on someone's calendar.
| Pouches & liter cartons | 55-gallon barrels | |
|---|---|---|
| Shelf life | 5 or 10 years sealed, depending on product | Up to 5 years per preserver treatment |
| Distribution | Hand out individual servings, no equipment | Needs a siphon or bung pump and cups or bottles |
| Space | Cases stack in closets, cabinets and go-kits | Floor space per barrel, best in a utility or storage room |
| Upkeep | Check dates, replace at expiry | Fill, treat, date-mark, and re-treat on schedule |
| Best for | First 24 hours, classrooms, evacuation kits | Sustained supply for a whole building |
Shelf life and rotation: the cache only works if it is in date
Emergency water fails quietly. Nothing breaks; the dates simply pass. A rotation routine sized to a school or facility calendar keeps the cache honest:
- Date-mark everything on arrival: Write the expiry month and year on the outside of every case and barrel in marker, large enough to read on a storeroom walk-through. If it is not dated, it will not be rotated.
- Audit on a fixed calendar point: Twice a year, alongside fire extinguisher and AED checks, count the cache against the plan and list anything inside 12 months of expiry. The audit takes minutes when the dates face outward.
- Rotate near-date stock into drills: Water approaching its date can be used for emergency drills, first aid training and events instead of being discarded, then replaced with fresh stock.
- Treat barrels on schedule: Barrel water dosed with preserver concentrate is rated for up to five years; record the fill date and treatment date on the barrel itself, and re-treat or refill when the treatment lapses.
- Inspect seals and storage conditions: Pouches and cartons should be sealed, dry and out of direct heat and sunlight. A crushed or swollen case gets pulled and replaced, not returned to the shelf.
Where to store it: central capacity, distributed first hours
A single storeroom cache fails the moment that room is unreachable. Split the storage the way the event unfolds:
A central barrel cache
Barrels belong together on a ground floor, near a utility sink for filling and a door wide enough for a drum dolly. Keep the pump, wrench and preserver with the barrels, not in a separate closet.
Distributed sealed water
Cases of pouches or liter cartons in each wing, floor or classroom cluster cover the first hours and any area cut off from the main cache. Distribution beats capacity early on.
Go-kits and vehicles
A case in each evacuation go-kit and transport vehicle covers the walk to the assembly point and the wait for pickup, when building supplies are already behind you.
Secure but unlocked in an emergency
Caches sit inside the building's secure perimeter, but the staff on duty at 2 a.m. must be able to open the room. Note cache locations in the emergency operations plan and on the storeroom door.
The facility planning checklist
Work through this list once and the cache largely runs itself:
- Headcount on paper: The plan names the number it covers, including staff and visitors, and the coverage days chosen. Both numbers drive every purchase.
- Two formats, two locations: Sealed servings distributed around the building plus a barrel cache in one serviceable location.
- Dispensing kit with the barrels: Pump, bung wrench, preserver concentrate and a stock of cups or bottles stored with the drums.
- Dates on the calendar: Audit dates twice a year and treatment dates for every barrel, owned by a named role rather than a named person.
- Included in drills: At least one drill a year physically opens the cache and hands out water, which is how missing pumps and locked rooms get found.
Shop the range
Active MayDay emergency water from the store: the Aqua Literz cartons from this month's school and facility orders, pouch water by the case, and the barrel system for building-scale storage.
MayDay Emergency Drinking Water Pouches, Case of 100
Individual 4.225 oz servings that hand out one per person with no cups, pumps or measuring.
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MayDay 55-Gallon Emergency Water Barrel
High-density polyethylene drum for building-scale storage, filled and treated on site.
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MayDay Water Preserver 55-Gallon Concentrate
The treatment that keeps a filled barrel potable for up to five years per dose.
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01Emergency Drinking Water
Pouches and liter cartons, sealed and portioned for distribution.
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02Emergency Water Supplies
Barrels, bags, pumps and preserver: the storage hardware side of the cache.
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03MayDay Emergency Supplies
The full MayDay range: water, food, shelter and first aid for institutional preparedness.
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04Emergency Food Supplies
Calorie bars and rations that pair with the water cache for the same coverage days.
Browse the collectionFrequently asked questions
How much emergency water should a school store?
Plan on one gallon per person per day, the Ready.gov baseline, covering students, staff and visitors, for at least three days. A 500-person school therefore needs about 1,500 gallons in store, split between sealed servings for distribution and barrels for capacity.
How long does emergency water keep?
Sealed MayDay pouches and Aqua Literz cartons are rated at five or ten years depending on the product. Water stored in a barrel and dosed with preserver concentrate is treated for up to five years per treatment, after which the barrel is refilled or re-treated.
Pouches or barrels: which should we buy first?
Buy sealed servings first if you have nothing: they need no equipment and cover the first day for the whole building. Add barrels when you plan beyond a day or two, because barrel storage holds far more water per dollar and per storeroom once the pump and treatment routine are in place.
Where should emergency water be stored?
Split it: a central barrel cache on the ground floor near water and a wide door, and cases of sealed water distributed by wing or floor so every group can reach water in the first hour even if part of the building is closed off.
Does barrel water need treatment?
Yes. Fill from a potable supply, dose with water preserver concentrate at the fill, and date-mark the barrel with the fill and treatment dates. Untreated tap water in a barrel is a short-term measure, not a five-year cache.
Who should own the rotation schedule?
Assign it to a role, such as facilities manager or safety coordinator, with audit dates on the same cycle as extinguisher and AED checks. Caches owned by a person lapse when that person leaves; caches owned by a calendar do not.
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Schools & Facilities
Building a water cache for a whole building?
Send us your headcount and the coverage days you are planning for, and we will spec the mix of sealed servings and barrels as one institutional order.
Product selection guidance is informational. Check current specifications, availability, manufacturer instructions and any applicable clinical, safety or regulatory requirements before purchasing.