UK govt urges households to keep 3 days of food and water for emergencies

The UK government has urged households to keep three days of food and water at home, citing recent cyber disruptions and increasingly frequent extreme weather as reasons to prepare for emergencies.The advice was reinforced on Friday through the government's newly launched “Be Ready” campaign, which recommends storing bottled water and non-perishable food to help families cope if essential services are disrupted.Prime Minister Andy Burnham said recent events showed why Britain needed to improve its preparedness for crises rather than react after they occurred. Speaking at a meeting on the country's response to wildfires, he said the government had previously been “on the back foot” when dealing with emergencies.“Unexpected events seem to be becoming more and more common,” Burnham said, urging people to take practical steps to prepare for situations that could interrupt daily life.He stressed that the guidance was not intended to encourage panic buying.“It's not about panic buying... It's about just taking sensible measures to have enough in the house to tide you over should there be a difficult situation,” he said.The announcement follows a major cybersecurity incident involving vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by websites and online services. The flaws were disclosed on Wednesday, prompting organisations around the world to review their systems. Some services were taken offline, while millions of hacking attempts were reported.Defence Secretary Wes Streeting warned that cyber incidents could become more frequent as artificial intelligence makes it easier for attackers to identify weaknesses in digital systems. He also pointed to threats from hostile states, organised criminals and climate change.Speaking on the BBC's Question Time, Streeting said the UK faced a level of threat “than we have certainly for most, if not all, of my lifetime”.Alongside cyber risks, the government is responding to extreme weather, including storms and a summer marked by record heat, drought and wildfires. Ministers have announced a new wildfire response plan that includes deploying military aircraft to support firefighting efforts.The government says the household guidance is intended to help people manage temporary disruptions caused by events such as war, cyberattacks or natural disasters.The advice is similar to a recommendation issued by the European Commission last year, which encouraged people across the European Union to maintain a 72-hour emergency kit containing essentials such as food, water, cash and power banks.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.