Water is the most important thing you'll carry. You can survive 3 days without it, you'll feel terrible after one. Get water management wrong and your trip ends fast — dehydration, sickness from contaminated sources, or just having to drive 100km back to a tap.

Here's the practical guide to water management for camping and caravan touring — how much to carry, how to store it safely, how to treat dodgy sources, and the small habits that stretch every litre.

Photo by Harsh Mangalam on Unsplash

• Drinking only: 2L per person per day in cool weather, 4L in heat, 5-6L in extreme heat or hard activity
• Drinking + cooking + minimal washing: 5-7L per person per day
• Drinking + cooking + showering + dishes: 15-30L per person per day (this is where caravan tanks go fast)
• Pets — 100ml per kg of body weight per day. A 25kg dog = 2.5L

The reality: most caravanners use way more water than they realise. A 100L tank can disappear in 3 days for a family of 4 with a quick shower each.

Always carry an extra 25% over what you've planned — for breakdowns, longer-than-expected drives, or unexpected days at a dry camp.

• Caravan onboard tank — typically 80-200L. Fill before each leg of the trip from town water. Drain + refill if it's been sitting for weeks
• Jerry cans (food-grade plastic) — 10-20L each. Stack in a roof basket or rear cargo. Cheap, reliable, easy to refill
• Bladder tanks — flexible, fold flat when empty. Useful for swag campers + tent-only setups. Fragile if punctured
• Stainless steel water bottles — for personal drinking, 1-2L each. Klean Kanteen, Hydroflask, etc
• Collapsible water carriers — 10-20L, fold flat. Great for getting water from a tap to camp

Photo: J Murdoch / Unsplash

Stagnant water in a tank breeds bacteria, algae, and that musty caravan-tank taste:

• Clean the tank annually with a tank-cleaning product (Tank Cleen, Aqua Soft, similar). Fill, agitate, drain, rinse 2-3 times
• If the van's been sitting all winter — empty completely + clean before refilling
• Never fill from a dodgy bore or river — use only tested town water sources for the tank
• Keep the tank inlet capped — stops insects, dust, debris
• Check the tank vent for blockages

This is one beginners get wrong. Garden hoses leach chemicals + give that "plastic taste". Get a proper food-grade hose:

• White or blue food-grade hose — labelled "drinking water safe" or "potable"
• BPA + phthalate free
• Brass fittings (lead-free) — not nylon
• Store wrapped + clean — separate from any other hoses or chemicals
• Cap the ends when not in use

$30 well spent. The taste difference vs a garden hose is enormous.

Photo: miguel garcia jimenez / Unsplash

If you have to refill from a creek, dam, bore or any non-municipal source, treat it. Aussie bush water can carry giardia, cryptosporidium, e.coli, blue-green algae:

• Boil 1 minute (rolling boil) — the gold standard. Kills everything. Uses fuel, takes time, water tastes flat
• Iodine or chlorine tablets — Aquatabs, MicroPur. Drop in, wait 30 minutes, drink. Light, cheap, reliable. Slight chemical taste
• Inline filter (Sawyer Mini, Katadyn BeFree, MSR Trail Shot) — squeeze or pump through. Removes bacteria + protozoa. Doesn't remove viruses or chemicals. Excellent for hiking
• Gravity-fed filter — bigger units like Berkey for caravan use. Filter on the kitchen side
• UV light pen (SteriPen) — kills viruses + bacteria. Fast, no taste change, needs batteries
• Distillation — overkill for camping

For most touring: a couple of pressurised inline filters between the tap source and your jerry can / tank, plus tablets in the first aid kit, covers all situations.

• Wipe plates + bowls with paper towel before washing — saves 70% of dishwashing water
• Wet, lather, rinse showering — turn water OFF while soaping
• Reuse vegetable rinse water for washing dishes
• Catch shower runoff in a bucket — use for flushing the cassette toilet
• Bring baby wipes for hands + face instead of running water
• Pre-soaked dishcloths in a snap-lid container — no rinse needed
• Limit one shower per day — sometimes a quick wash from a damp cloth is enough
• Track tank levels — don't wait until the pump is sucking air
• Greywater management — many caravan parks now require greywater capture; carry a sullage hose

• Caravan gas/electric storage hot water — Truma, Suburban, etc. Heats 22L+ tank. Comfortable but uses water + gas
• Continuous gas systems — Bushman, Joolca — heat on demand. More efficient, instant hot water
• Solar shower bag — fill in morning, hangs in sun, hot by evening. $30. The cheap bush option
• Kettle on the stove — boiled water diluted with cold for an emergency wash
• Hot water from car cooling — a Fluxx-style heat exchanger uses engine heat to warm water for showering

Water management is unsexy until it goes wrong. Calculate your daily use realistically, store more than you think you'll need, use a proper drinking water hose, treat any water from non-municipal sources, and adopt a few water-saving habits.

The bushy who's done it for years uses a quarter the water of the first-time tourer — and never runs dry. Worth learning the discipline early in your camping career.