Right now there is no reason to think either the Netherlands or the US will have no electricity or water this winter. Will electricity cost more? Yes. Will people need to turn down their thermostats? Yes. And it will likely be more costly in Holland than here.
People in Ukraine will likely suffer periods of no electricity and maybe no water, perhaps even long periods, and more will flee west because of it. The real suffering will be in Ukraine.
Yes, if we were all to lose electricity and water it would be a disaster. But there is no reason to think that will happen in the foreseeable future.
I lived in a Third World country for over a year with no electricity or running water and got along fine. But of course my little home was set up for it. Rainwater from the metal roof filled an old oil drum. Oil lamp. Etc. Tropical climate, so no need for heat. AC or even an electric fan would have been nice in the oppressive heat, but I survived okay without them.
I’m rather glad of it, because I learned The Joy of Water. During monsoon season, no worries. During the dry season, a storm would occasionally pass over at night, usually in the wee hours, just as the oil drum was nearly drained and I feared I’d run out of lovely clean rainwater. All the other women would dash outdoors with every pot, pan, jar they had to collect water in the downpour, I along with them, and we would all be grinning ear to ear, calling happily to each other, absolutely full of pure joy that we were getting an abundance of precious clean water. I loved the Sisterhood of Water, and so glad I got experience the Joy of Water. It was a very special, very human, and somehow very feminine thing. It’s true we don’t appreciate these simple things.
I spent some months in winter (plus part of summer and the autumn before) in a war-torn country with no power or water, and it was no fun. The snow was deep and it was terribly cold. I fetched drinking water from a clean cold spring, flushing, washing and bathing water from a nearby hot sulphur spring. There was a little tile woodstove, but baddie soldiers kept stealing the firewood, so a struggle to keep warm. Some “one-stick” nights I piled all my clothes on top of myself. I survived, but then I was young and healthy. The elderly and infirm can easily die without help. Yes, I helped.
There was no cholera, no typhus, not even in the towns.
I am not worried about losing water and power this winter. Higher bills, yes. There is no indication we are all doomed to a winter of no power or water this winter, here or in the Netherlands. I’m puzzled as to why you think we are.
>>I lived in a Third World country for over a year with no electricity or running water and got along fine.<<
I bet you would talk differently if that cosy home of yours was located in in an area where there are cold winters and all facilities are electricity dependent.