# Living on one liter of water/day **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** beer\ **Created:** [May 29, 2024, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216 "2024-05-29T06:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/1 "2024-05-29T06:17:36Z")
Several months ago, a news source like NBC or CNN said the people in Gaza strip were each living on a liter. I would just wash my hands after relieving myself. I doubt I would get to shower for the duration, like two years (nasty!). I would hope I had enough cheap beer on hand to not get dehydrated. It would feel like Survivor. What would you give up to live on a l/d? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/2 "2024-05-29T06:27:20Z")
Alcohol ain’t gonna help with that dehydration. For one thing. Not that beer is gonna be abundant in Gaza. Liquid from canned foods from aide workers could give you lots of hydration. Washing will not be even considered. You better drink all that water everyday. I have to count every ounce I drink. I’m near dehydrated daily. It’s not a pleasant way to live. If it rains catch all the water you can. Plastic sheeting will help. No way to purify it, disease will get you soon. Yep. Not good. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/3 "2024-05-29T06:55:05Z")
Note that Muslim prayers [require an ablution ritual](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wudu), so there’s religious hardship attached here too. There is [an alternative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tayammum) for when water is unavailable but even that requires clean ground, not sure how much of that there is in Gaza, nowadays. Note that 1l/day is _less than half_ the bare minimum [considered necessary to survive just for drinking/eating by the WHO](https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/wash-documents/who-tn-09-how-much-water-is-needed.pdf). In other word, you can’t _really_ live on 1 l/d. I would like a cite for the figure, though. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/4 "2024-05-29T07:36:44Z")
Thanks Beck and MrDibble for being with me here! It’s a good point as you said that the WHO writes that everyone needs more than that drink and eat. The last paragraph of this article talked about living on this little water. It might have been quite bogus and hard to nail down. I’ve been mildly curious about it for months. Since it was questionable, you could see why I brought it up late at night in the pit. ([Gaza taps are running dry as water shortage reaches crisis point](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-taps-running-dry-water-shortage-crisis-point-rcna120753)) ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/5 "2024-05-29T12:08:46Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Alcohol ain’t gonna help with that dehydration. For one thing. False. Low ABV beer can provide not only hydration but a few nutrients. That’s not to say you should have a strong beer to get hydrated or pound half a dozen brews in 5 minutes, but slowly consuming a 3% (for example) beer, especially if supplemented with water, will generally provide more hydration than you lose to the diuretic effects of the alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/6 "2024-05-29T13:12:34Z")
I moved this from #The BBQ Pit to #In My Humble Opinion. Please avoid attacking other posters. Nothing in the OP seems to make it a Pit thread and several flags came in to move it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/7 "2024-05-29T13:35:22Z")
Yeah, I think the same is true of other diuretic drinks such as coffee - in a survival situation, it would of course be better just to drink water, but beer/coffee is better than drinking nothing at all. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/8 "2024-05-29T13:37:11Z")
Apparently it depends. If the alcohol and/or caffeine levels are sufficiently low, they may even be better than water due to all the other stuff in there. The principle is the same for some sports drinks - some level of electrolytes helps with hydration better than plain water. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/9 "2024-05-29T14:20:02Z")
Yeah, alcohol is actually food (in the sense that the human body can make use of the calories in it) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-on-one-liter-of-water-day/1002216/10 "2024-05-29T15:06:30Z")
The most interesting part of that article is this: > But about 50% of Gaza’s electricity comes from Israel, while the rest is generated in Gaza with diesel-powered generators. Much of Gaza’s fuel is trucked in from a refinery in Haifa, _and Hamas has rapidly diminished Gaza’s supplies for its own use._ Without enough fuel and electricity to run the desalination and water treatment plants, there’s no clean water to flow through the pipes, Rettig said in an interview Monday. And the article says that one student’s family is limiting her to a liter a day, not that it’s a wider requirement.