The water nobody counts
The government's checklist asks for three litres of drinking water per person per day. It was written for a household that doesn't pray five times a day. Here is the water a Muslim home adds, and how to make it go further.
What the Be Ready checklist asks for
The Be Ready guidance asks every household to keep 3 litres of drinking water per person per day, plus extra for cooking and washing, for three days. It is a sensible list. It just doesn't count wudu.
The Wudu Water Rule
The Prophet (peace be upon him) made wudu with one mudd of water, roughly three-quarters of a litre (Sahih al-Bukhari 201). So the rule we use, and the one the family plan applies, is:
Most people keep their wudu across prayers, so we plan on three a day. For a household where five people pray, that is about 34 litres for three days. It is small next to the drinking water, but it is the part nobody budgets for, and running out of it at Fajr is miserable.
Three ways to make it go further
- Make wudu from a jug over a bowl, not from a running tap.
- Catch that water and use it to flush the toilet.
- Learn tayammum now, while there is no pressure, and confirm the details with your local imam.
What a real outage looks like
Tunbridge Wells went about two weeks without safe tap water last December, with bottled-water queues in car parks. Your sealed bottles are the part of the plan that doesn't depend on anyone else. Shop-bought bottled water keeps for years unopened. Tap water in clean, sealed containers is fine for washing and wudu.
Your numbers, in two minutes
The free family plan works out drinking, washing and wudu water for your household, shows the total in bottles, and gives you a tick list for food, power, health and the faith kit.
Going further: Chapter 3: Water in the Playbook works this through for two weeks and three months, including what to do when the tap water itself is the problem.