I want to put together a DIY water cistern out of a 55 gallon barrel by connecting an inlet straight to the tap water through a fine filter. According to the CDC it's fine to store water that way for like 3 months at least, so we can use a siphon to drain the barrel periodically to refill it with fresh water after sanitizing the barrel.
What I'd be looking for in a collaborator is people who are able to spread the word about why this is a good idea or perhaps even advance the idea by selling kits at cost to help get them out in the world for cheaper (assuming bulk discounts). I'd also be looking for a better biologist than I (or whatever kind of scientist I'd need for this part) to help me make sure that the filtration is adequate to ensure safety.
I want to learn more about the required filtering. I have a barrel and I've bought a lot of fancy cartridge filters from McMaster in the past (I do chemical engineering and am weaker on biology), so I feel like there must be a way for me to do this.
The reason I worry about this is because in a power outage the city water supply can go dead. Or an earthquake if you live in a region prone to them. Or a flood could contaminate the water supply. I think that in such a scenario you should have 10 gallons of water per person tucked away so that you can keep yourself healthy and also help your neighbors.
This is a simple project I can try to document and do in a way that is definitely safe (the last thing I want to do is give unsafe advice). It is a project that would likely cost someone a hundred dollars or a bit more, but increasing household resiliency seems increasingly important.
I remember growing up that we always had emergency supplies because it's important in a serious emergency to not depend on emergency responders (with limited time and lots of problems to handle) for basic stuff that you should be able to handle yourself with fairly simple preparation.