What if without water and electricity?

Because of an unusual accident with the water supply in my region, something like brick wall falling down and broke the water pipeline, I have to go out with a bucket, finding some places where water is still available, you know, the closestool has to be flushed off, my mom needs water to prepare for my tomorrow's breakfast etc, so guy! Move now...

footballism wrote:

what if without clean water and electricity in the world? can we still leave without them? which matters to us most, water and electricity, or computer technology?

Water and electricity, in that order.

The invention of reliable clean water supplies did more to improve the health of humans than pretty much anything else.

We lost electricity in Toronto a few years ago, for nearly 4 days. It was devastating. Because WHAT DO YOU EAT?

Water's much more crucial though. After 4 days, people were nearly panicking. If it had been even 1 day without water there would have been riots.

Water.

"Rule" of threes:

3 Minutes without air
3 Days without water
30 Days without food 

footballism wrote:

Because of an unusual accident with the water supply in my region, something like brick wall falling down and broke the water pipeline, I have to go out with a bucket, finding some places where water is still available, you know, the closestool has to be flushed off, my mom needs water to prepare for my tomorrow's breakfast etc, so guy! Move now...

  Ok, now I'm back from carrying water from a long distance, actually it's just few hundred metres away from my home, I said it long distance because in terms of that I have to take a large bucket of water from here to there and back, it's really a labour intensive work I have to do, just like walking several thousand miles.

  When I carried the bucket of water on my way back home, I have a question in mind: what if without clean water and electricity in the world? can we still leave without them? which matters to us most, water and electricity, or computer technology?

PS: I also post this on my space on MSN

I think we could go without clean water.  I seem to remmeber reading about Colonial Americans drinking so much whisky this and wine that beer... etc etc.  I asked a knowledgeable friend about it and they gave the explanation that sometimes the alcahol in these beverges was the only drink they could keep from going rotten without refridgeration.

Seemed to make sense.  So to me if I had a choice between clean water and electricity, I would choose electricity, since you can make clean water with electricity - but thats like cheating on the original question.

Sounds like you need to make a cart or hoist or... something.

themaffeo wrote:

Water.

"Rule" of threes:

3 Minutes without air
3 Days without water
30 Days without food 

I don't know where you got that from. But my sister's a med-student (3rd year) and told me that:

Air:
2 minutes = uncouncious
4 minutes = nearly dead
7 minutes = dead

Water varies, depending on how fit you are, what the weather is, and how much you've eaten and especilly the temperature.

And its pretty much the same for food, but around 14 days before it get real bad. But no-one can survive 30 days without food in a harsh environment.

W3bbo wrote:

themaffeo wrote: Water. "Rule" of threes: 3 Minutes without air 3 Days without water 30 Days without food

I don't know where you got that from. But my sister's a med-student (3rd year) and told me that:

Air:
2 minutes = uncouncious
4 minutes = nearly dead
7 minutes = dead

Water varies, depending on how fit you are, what the weather is, and how much you've eaten and especilly the temperature.

And its pretty much the same for food, but around 14 days before it get real bad. But no-one can survive 30 days without food in a harsh environment.

I've done 30 days without food several times. It's not pleasant (heh), but then it wasn't a harsh environment either.

Jeremy W. wrote:

I've done 30 days without food several times. It's not pleasant (heh), but then it wasn't a harsh environment either.

Without food or without solid food?

ScanIAm wrote:

Jeremy W. wrote: I've done 30 days without food several times. It's not pleasant (heh), but then it wasn't a harsh environment either.

Without food or without solid food?

Yeah, being on an IV in hospital doesn't count.

ScanIAm wrote:

Jeremy W. wrote: I've done 30 days without food several times. It's not pleasant (heh), but then it wasn't a harsh environment either.

Without food or without solid food?

Only water.

W3bbo: Does fasting for religious reasons count? I've done 3 30 day fasts in my life, and at least a dozen 1 week ish fasts (some are only water, others are looser).

Personally I prefer going to just vegetables / juices / water, but I have done the more hardcore fasts.

A few of my friends have done 60-90 days on just water and vitamins (no sense being stupid about it).

themaffeo wrote:

Water.

"Rule" of threes:

3 Minutes without air
3 Days without water
30 Days without food 

You forgot:

30 Seconds without an atmosphere (and you're holding your breath). That's per Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Yeah, that was my other question, but I was too timid to ask...fasting for religeous reasons, huh. 

Apparently, it's good for your health if done for shorter periods, but I can't say that I've heard that 30+ days is a good idea.

To each, their own.  You seem unadversely affected by it so huzzah!

Jeremy W. wrote:

W3bbo: Does fasting for religious reasons count? I've done 3 30 day fasts in my life, and at least a dozen 1 week ish fasts (some are only water, others are looser).

Personally I prefer going to just vegetables / juices / water, but I have done the more hardcore fasts.

Not try to be funny here...but what was your mental state like after that?  Say, around, day 29?  Were you as cognizent as you were on day 1?  I was always curious about that.*

* No, I have not Googled this yet.

Jeremy W. wrote:

A few of my friends have done 60-90 days on just water and vitamins (no sense being stupid about it).

Stupid is kind of a relative term...without knowing the reason why your friends went without for so long, I can't imagine a person would be in very good physical shape after 60-90 days without other essentials such as protein, etc.  Unless they were taking in protein in pill form?

These aren't by any chance the same people who are "living unplugged off the grid"? 

Scan: I couldnt' do it for anything other than religious reasons. Anything over 20 days really isn't pleasant. Between 7-20 days is actually fairly easy, because your body's settled down and cravings are at a minimum. The first 3 days of any fast are the hardest, though. They're when you tend to relax your commitments.

And, yeah, most of this was in my younger and more foolish days. I can't imagine doing a 30 day fast now. Maybe a 7 day fruit and veg and juice and water fast, but nothing much else.

My point was really that it's amazing what the human body can do. Going 30+ days is not only feasible, it gets done on a yearly basis by roughly 5 million people (at least... there's a start of year fast every year in a cross section of Christianity).

That doesn't mean it's recommended or healthy, but you can recover from whatever adverse effects. Plus, it's fun to see what you can do

There's a similar question that's bugging me:

If something world shattering happens, like an asteroid hit or a nuclear war, strong enough to make the world economies et all collapse, but happened far enough away not to kill you or give you a lethal disease... what then?

the human body can survive a very long time without food.  30 to 40 days is about the max
depending on you helath status.  Sense most of us are geeks and live in front a computer i would not give us much past 20.  You learn this stuff in survival classes and this includes harsh enviroments.

Without water depending on the enviroment it can be up to 7 days. but if in a desert you be lucky to live 2 to 3 days.  in a Winter climate it can be the full 7 days but at that point the kidneys have shutdown.

---
The world can not survive without both water or electricity.  the population is just far to high.  It is interresting this is coming from china a member.  China is having massive water shortages, it has polluted most of its water sources to a point its deadly to drink, and can't be used for crops water  water2  Plus its electricity problems mite be even worse, how would people in the West feel about rolling blackouts in most of the cities happening on a regular bases plus have the government issue rationing on electricity2.

A few months back I had a pipe burst in my basement and the water had to be shut off for a day until a plumber could come. It was a strange experience not being able to flush toilets, take a shower, brush my teeth, etc.

TimP wrote:

A few months back I had a pipe burst in my basement and the water had to be shut off for a day until a plumber could come. It was a strange experience not being able to flush toilets, take a shower, brush my teeth, etc.

Seconded. About a year ago the piping was being replaced in the entire building, so the water was off. Even though we knew in advance so I'd filled a few bottles and we had prepared some "flush-buckets", it's still a strange experience to open a faucet and nothing comes out.

For short term though, I think a day without water like that is easier than a day without electricity. A while ago some idiot drilled through a power line and we were partially without power for about 11 hours (hallway and shared facility (toilets, kitchen) lights still worked, but rooms didn't) and that't much more annoying. Without electricity, you can't work, you can't keep any food in the fridge, and at night you can't even read a book because there's no light. With water being gone for a short while, there's usually a replacement available, while few of us have an emergence backup generator at hand.

For longer term though, I think water would become a big problem faster than electricity.