|
|
Protection of water supply focused on terrorist attack by selective contaminants in the district of Žatec
HRUŠKOVÁ, Hana
In my bachelor thesis, I concentrated primarily to issues inclusive to water management and terrorism. The main aim of my thesis is to analyze protection of water supply against possible terrorist attack with using of selective contaminants. The district of Žatec is defined by administrative area municipality with extended competence Žatec that includes 18 villages and their parts. Over 91 % from the 26 thousand inhabitants are supplied a potable water by public water supply from several surface and groundwater water sources. In this region has been built over 20 water tanks, more than 200 km water mains, several pump stations, water treatment plant and another equipment. Water supply network of the district Žatec is controlled by regional dispatch center, located in Most. In partial analyse of security system water supply, I focused on issue of the protection against external disruption by terrorists on selective objects or equipment. I visited some of them, specifically selected water tanks and dispatching by excursion with expert consultation. I founded that the most vulnerable components are water tanks which are not connected to dispatching. That´s means that dispatchers haven´t continuous information about monitored parameters of water tanks and that these water tanks are not secured by infrared sensor which points out a break-in. These water tanks aren´t connected to large distributional systems. They supply individual town or group of municipalities by local or group water mains. Their further disadvantage is small capacity too. Water tank at Třeskonice has two chamber each with capacity of 25 m3. I defined suitable contaminant of water supply system by analysis potentially hazardous water contaminants. I compared required properties of suitable contaminant with available informations concerning to selective biological weapons and toxins. Although, at first I supposed that I will define by analysis more suitable contaminants than one, so I could determine only bacillus anthracis as potentially highly hazardous water contaminant due to limited access of available informations about agens. Spores of this bacterium which cause anthrax are e.g. resistant to chlorine, stable in water enviroment, relatively easy cultivation on selected culture medium. There is probably posibility to be infected by cutaneous and intestinal forms of anthrax through effective and sufficient contamination. In the final analysis, the potential of a terrorist attack on the water supply network of the district Žatec, I concentrated mainly on evaluation posibilities of ways performance terrorist attack from the point of view of efectivity and difficulty performance such terrorist attack and on evaluation of total and general potencial terrorist attack. The easiest and the most likely ways of performance terrorist attack is direct aplication of suitable contaminant into water tanks´s reservoir. Simultaneously the easiest and the most effective is contamination into selective water tanks that I specified in analysis security of water supply network. Nevertheless is undoubted that even ineffective contamination would mean really significant intervention towards activities of all relevant institutions and serious disruption of inhabitants´s daily life. Due to my achieved results is neccesary to raise level of protection water supply network for some parts of this system. It concerns primarily improvement security for individual water tanks. It is also desirable to determine security level of water tanks by legislative law. For verification of preparedness for such crisis situation is needed to perform a demonstration training with model situation for possible contamination of the water network by hazardous substances.Concurrently it is important to implement available and actual data from adequate foreing sources which are concerning to a research potentional water contaminants, especially biological and chemical weapons.
|
guest ::
