IS OUR DRINKING-WATER SUPPLY SAFE….

Is our drinking-water supply system safe from undetected access?

Water infrastructure are highly sensitive sites to terrorist attacks, being targeted directly to damage water processing or delivery systems. Letting apart a long-term disruption of drinking-water supply, it may be contaminated through spread of pathogens, chemicals or radioactive products, that would easily poison or even kill the population.

Reducing the risk of sabotage requires preparedness. Early detection of intruding attempts would prevent or significantly reduce the threat. Surveillance and security measures should be concentrated on protecting key local installations, especially water-treatment plants and water tanks and towers.

Often these sites are located on the countryside, and do not have any permanent site surveillance.

Undetected access should be made more difficult by securing the sites with strong fences, erecting multiple barriers to entry, and sealing entry points. These should be supplemented by synergical measures, such as intrusion detectors and silent alarms connected to the police and the water control room.

In case of an alarm, it is necessary to send a vehicle with the guards, or appeal to the local police. But the police might be taken by other priorities. As far as private guards, too many interventions for no real intrusion could create high protection costs.
Lowering the rate of false alarms, detecting true intrusion attempts, becomes crucial.

If resources permit, monitoring of water quality parameters and closed-circuit television surveillance should be used too.

An effective strategy, often used in other critical infrastructures, is to install 2 layers of perimeter detection. The first layer acting as a pre-alarm and generating a remote CCTV assessment, while the second layer of detecting generate on site intervention.

When it comes to clean water storage ponds, these sites can have very extensive perimeters. Here on the large ranges you can put 2 defence lines: the first outside the perimeter on the fence, like SIOUX MEMS PRO2 with redundancy, CIAS fence-mounted intrusion detection system with cable  cut-immunity and intelligent MEMS sensors, IP Native.

The second will cover the area soon inside the perimeter: ideal solution is installing a mW barriers, one of the most reliable and safe intrusion detectors, such as Ermo 482X3 Pro series, which by means of "fuzzy logic" algorithms offers the lowest False Alarm Rate (1/unit/year), along with the highest Probability of Detection  (0.99 minimum based on s/n ratio). Its operational temperature goes from -35°C to +70°C, with IP66 grade.

Other sites instead are located closer to the city, such as pumping stations. These can be very compact and allow a narrow space for perimeter detection.
Here, in association with Sioux MEMSPRO2, the MICRO-RAY linear mW barrier can be optimal. This revolutionary detector is top reliable thanks to mW technology, but behaves like an IR linear barrier without suffering any environmental conditions.

Not to forget, the proximity to water requires corrosion-resistant material. Plastic, aluminum, or stainless metal accessories are essential to ensure long-term operation.
CIAS PIDS are manufactured in high-quality materials, designed for long outdoor performance also in extreme environmental conditions.

Finally, a FULL IP integration is also absolutely necessary, since the remoteness of the sites requires an integration with the CCTV system for complete surveillance: CIAS PIDS are actually integrated with major technological brands.

For info on our perimeter solutions for sensitive facilities
please contact: extreme@cias.it