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[danieo]

What should I do if I run out of water?

[anewaname]

What was your original source? If it was surface ponds, they can refill when there is rain (but slowly in biomes that have low rain and high heat). The important bit is that surface ponds only refill if they still have their "floor tile" intact and if there is no roof over them.

[PatrikLundell]

Typically find a new, more reliable source of water (which doesn't rule out letting the original one recover, if possible).
Unless you've played with cavern water abundance on number of caverns, there's a good chance at least one cavern has a source of water, and those are often right by the edge, which means they get replenished from the outside.
However, cavern lakes also means contact with cavern critters, so you need to take measures to make your water source reasonably safe (I eventually wall off all caverns, causing them to be completely safe. However, I also have aquifers enabled, so I typically have a safe unlimited source of water there, at the cost of some additional work to penetrate it if it isn't partial).

[Ulfarr]

On maps with murky pools I like to either expand them or connect them to some reservoir (dug or channelled depending on preference).  This method works well enough on maps with heavy rainfall to store the excess water or those that freeze during the winter since thawing always generate 7/7 water/tile of ice so as long as you can keep some amount of water to freeze you can generate new water ad infinitum.

[Krakyziabr]

I understand your situation, death is very close! especially when the booze runs out and there's no more water!

You must seize the fate of your dwarves by the balls! Use dwarven radar! find caves! find water in the caves!

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93694.0

[PatrikLundell]

If I was relying on murky pools for water I'd install retractable bridges at the bottom of them (or as many as needed) and lead the water to an underground cistern (after purification). Using an outdoor water source is a risk, since your medics would need to go through the invading forces to fetch water to treat those wounded by the invaders in the hospital.
There'd be additional protection against invaders entering/sneaking in through an open drawbridge.

[danieo]

Thanks for the help, guys. Only now I'm learning how to play the game and I think my dwarves will dehydrate. Can I store rain water by digging some channels?

[Ulfarr]

Is there any reason why they don't just drink some alcohol? Only injured dwarves *at the hospital* need to drink water specificaly.

[danieo]

Is there any reason why they don't just drink some alcohol? Only injured dwarves *at the hospital* need to drink water specificaly.

We're out of any liquid :/

[Ulfarr]

So, are there no brewable plants available in your fort? If you don't have a farm yet you can gather any plant using either a gathering zone or the gather plants designation. The second option is the fastest to yiled some fruit/plant that can then be tuned into alcohol in a still.

[PatrikLundell]

Also note that even if dorfs CAN drink water when you're out of the real stuff, they don't like it (except, I assume, the rare, but existent, oddballs whose preferred drink is water). Thus, gather plants in the short term and make booze out of it (as a priority when it comes to allocating work to your dorfs). Harvesting fruit when those are in season works as well. For the longer term, plant seeds with the objective to harvest the results for booze production, but that obviously takes some time.
It can also be noted that unless the all caverns are "muddy", you should be able to gather plants down there (obviously the wildlife can make that a dangerous task).
Finally, gathered plants processed into booze leave seeds behind, allowing you to plant those in (hopefully) safer and more accessible locations than all across the map.

[danieo]

So, are there no brewable plants available in your fort? If you don't have a farm yet you can gather any plant using either a gathering zone or the gather plants designation. The second option is the fastest to yiled some fruit/plant that can then be tuned into alcohol in a still.

I'm using a save from nearly a year ago and I remember to put a dwarf to make infinite barrels and one to brew until he runs out of plants. I don't know where they stored it. I accepted that they'll die but I'm learning how to store water so I can make better fortresses in the future.

[Ulfarr]

All products are stored either in the workshop that produced them or in their respective stockpile (if one exists and has space for them). By default, empty barrels are stored in furniture stockpiles and barrels with either food or drinks go into the general "food" stockpile.

For storing water, keep in mind that water can and will evaporate and disappear over time. In the usual temperatures, keeping the bottom layer of your reservoir above the 2/7 water level is enough to prevent evaporation, which makes deeper reservoirs preferable to wider ones, due to the former needing less water to reach that 2/7 level.

[danieo]

All products are stored either in the workshop that produced them or in their respective stockpile (if one exists and has space for them). By default, empty barrels are stored in furniture stockpiles and barrels with either food or drinks go into the general "food" stockpile.

For storing water, keep in mind that water can and will evaporate and disappear over time. In the usual temperatures, keeping the bottom layer of your reservoir above the 2/7 water level is enough to prevent evaporation, which makes deeper reservoirs preferable to wider ones, due to the former needing less water to reach that 2/7 level.

Hmm so I think I actually ran out of booze.