Austria's armed forces call a large-scale blackout realistic in the coming years
When the power fails, the water follows. Hours, not days.
Without electricity the pumps stop. The pressure in the pipes drops, nothing comes out of the tap, and what happens in the supermarkets afterwards, Europe saw on 28 April 2025.
Preparedness guide · WaterUpdated 3 September 2026
The short version
- Austria's armed forces run a public campaign preparing the population for a blackout. They call it realistic in the coming years.
- Water supply runs on electricity. When the grid fails, the pumps fail, then the pressure. After a few hours, nothing comes out.
- The European Commission asks every household to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours. Austria's civil protection calculates 2 litres per person per day, for 10 to 14 days. For a family of four that is 112 litres.
- The alternative to storing it: keep the clean water you already have, and filter what you find. Without electricity.
Austria's ministry of defence runs its own public information campaign on blackouts. Not for soldiers. For households. The assessment behind it: a large-scale power failure is not a question of if, but of when.
Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence, blackout informationMost people picture darkness. Candles, a cold radiator, a silent phone. Unpleasant, but survivable.
The real problem starts in your water pipe. After hours, not days.
Why the water goes first, and not the power
Your water supply is not a separate system. It is an electricity consumer.
Drinking water does not reach the fourth floor by gravity. It gets there by pumps. When the power fails, backup generators kick in. They are designed for hours, not for days.
From the official recommendations, verbatim:
“Stock 2 litres of drinking water per person per day, for a period of 10 to 14 days.”
“Every household should be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours. First on the list: drinking water.”
This is how fast it goes:
The pressure in the pipes drops. Higher apartments and districts get nothing first.
The reserves in the elevated tanks are used up. The pipes run empty.
Without pressure, contamination can enter the network from outside. That is why a boil-water advisory almost always follows. The water comes back. Drinkable it is not.
And a boil-water advisory during a power cut contradicts itself. What are you supposed to boil with.
28 April 2025
It was not a war. Not an attack. Not a storm. It was a Monday in April.
12:33. All of mainland Spain and Portugal without power. 55 million people, for around ten hours.
Electric pumps and treatment plants stood still.
Higher districts lost pressure within hours, partly completely.
Several hospitals lost their water supply. Affected wards could not run dialysis.
Empty the same afternoon. Queues and sold-out shops were reported from Valencia, Zaragoza, Madrid and Seville.
Run the numbers for your own household
Take the official recommendation seriously and put in your own figures.
That is around 75 bottles of 1.5 litres. About six full crates. Roughly 112 kilograms.
Now the real question: where exactly do those six crates stand in your home?
Not in theory. Concretely. In which room.
For most households the honest answer is: nowhere. There is no space. And even if there were, the stock would need rotating, carrying and checking.
You cannot store your way out of this problem.
The three options every household has
1. Store water
Works, if you have the space. 112 litres need a room, regular rotation, and someone who carries them. Most apartments do not have that room.
2. Buy it when it happens
On 28 April the Spanish shelves were empty the same afternoon. Whoever had nothing at 12:33 got nothing at 18:00. You would depend on being faster than everyone else.
3. Use the water that is already there
Water is rarely truly gone. It is in the rain barrel, the stream, the pool, your bathtub, and under a boil-water advisory it still runs from your own tap. What is missing is not water. It is the ability to keep it and make it drinkable.
Exactly here is where NORDVAND begins. Two devices, two different jobs:
The X1 makes water drinkable that you find somewhere. The W1 secures the clean water you already have, before it is gone. One does not replace the other. With both, you do not have to go looking for water at all in the first days.
Part 1 · Filter what you find
The NORDVAND X1
Built for exactly one purpose: a normal household that, in an emergency, has to turn the water that is available into safe drinking water. No preparation, no manual, no electricity.
At a glance
- Works without electricity and without batteries
- 0.01 µm ultrafiltration, 20 times finer than standard straw filters
- Activated carbon against chlorine, odour and taste
- Around 5,000 litres per filter
- No expiry date, no maintenance
- Under 100 grams, fits in any glove box
You pick your pack on the next page. Delivery in 5 to 12 working days.
What the X1 cannot do. We would rather write it ourselves.
A hollow-fiber membrane is a mechanical barrier. It works by pore size. Bacteria and parasites are reliably held back. Viruses are smaller. No filter of this type, from any manufacturer, is complete virus protection. Whoever promises you otherwise has either not read the data sheet or hopes you will not.
In central Europe this is usually not the decisive risk for rainwater, surface water or tap water under a boil-water advisory. For extra assurance, combine the filter with purification tablets from the pharmacy. They cost a few euros.
We tell you this before you buy, not after.
Part 2 · Keep what you have
The NORDVAND W1
When the warning comes, you do not have hours. You have minutes. The largest water container in your home is in the bathroom. You use it every day and have never seen it as a storage tank: a normal bathtub holds more than the 112 litres from the calculation above.
Except a bathtub is not a drinking-water tub. It is not sealed, it is not clean, and open water is no longer drinking water after a day. The W1 is the liner that turns your tub into a closed drinking-water reservoir: lay it in, connect it to the tap, fill it, seal it. Done in a few minutes, while there is still pressure on the line. A hand pump for dispensing is included.
What the W1 honestly cannot do
It only helps if you fill it while water still comes out of the tap. If the pressure is already gone, it is a piece of film. It cleans nothing and disinfects nothing: what flows in is what comes out. For longer storage, combine it with purification tablets or the X1. And you need a bathtub. If you only have a shower, this product does nothing for you.
Figures for capacity and film thickness follow as soon as we have the manufacturer's data sheet. Until then, we do not print a litre figure.
We are still confirming the manufacturer of the W1. We do not sell it until that is done. The X1 is available today.
Three things, kept apart
What the authorities advise
2 litres of drinking water per person per day for 10 to 14 days (Austrian civil protection), and at least 72 hours of household self-sufficiency (European Commission). Both linked above, both checkable.
What NORDVAND offers
A supplementary way to follow that advice in a normal apartment: filter the water you find, keep the water you have. Not the only way, and not a replacement for official instructions.
What NORDVAND does not claim
No complete virus protection. No performance figures without a data sheet. No connection to or endorsement by any authority cited here. In an emergency, always follow the official instructions first.
You have started. The next gap is light.
Water is the first chapter of your preparation, because it fails first. The second follows the same evening: every official list includes candles, and in every power cut someone puts a candle on something that can burn.
ADVERTISEMENT. This article is published by NORDVAND and promotes NORDVAND products. The recommendations and surveys cited are quoted with their sources. There is no connection, partnership or endorsement between those institutions and NORDVAND. Filter performance figures correspond to the manufacturer's test data. In an emergency, always follow the official instructions of the authorities.