Building resilience into water and wastewater treatment facilities

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” – H. Auden

Regardless of location and socio-economic status, there isn’t one person in the world who does not depend on water. Its value is ubiquitous, but it must first be treated before it is used or consumed. As such, treatment facilities are the unsung heroes in society which not only produce potable water from rivers and lakes, but also treat sewage so that it’s safe to be released into the environment. These facilities also purify water for use in industries such as manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

Water treatment facilities form the backbone of all functioning communities, producing clean water to support societal and industrial functions. Any disruption can have an immediate, significant and far-reaching impact. It’s for this reason that water and wastewater treatment facilities are regarded as part of every nation’s critical infrastructure, which are subject to more regulatory control. In fact, the EU’s Critical Entity Resilience (CER) Directive and NIS2 are demanding greater resilience from any organization defined as a critical entity.

However, these facilities can be subject to physical intrusions, safety incidents, contamination of water, cyberattacks or operational failure. Achieving resilience at your facility demands a considered and comprehensive approach which incorporates smart technology to help defend against disruption and improve overall safety, security and operational continuity. 

Defending against physical threats to facilities 

Access to water treatment plants and reservoirs must be carefully managed as intruders can potentially contaminate water or damage equipment with dire consequences if not identified and contained. Technology solutions can support your security efforts by increasing situational awareness, verifying threats, reducing the need for physical patrols and preventing false alarms. We will now look at how this works in practice by considering the solutions you could use in and around your facility. 

Starting outside the perimeter, the aim is to stop and prevent threats – land and airborne – before they even enter your premises. By adopting a proactive approach, you can use radar devices directed outwards from the fence line to detect and identify unwanted activity within your ‘buffer’ zone i.e. a designated area beyond your property that is constantly monitored. Thermal cameras can be used to detect intruders along the fence line, combined with PTZ cameras which track and identify suspects. A PTZ camera can also be coupled with a third-party drone detection solution to track and identify the intent of airborne threats.    

Working from the outside in, the area within your perimeter fence takes us one step closer to critical assets. The security approach here is aimed at understanding all activity within your fence line. Detecting and monitoring this area must strive to deter, intervene and mitigate any unwanted behaviours. Here radar devices, thermal technology and visual cameras can provide your security operators with the information they need to prevent intruders from accessing sensitive and high-risk areas within your perimeter. 

However, despite efforts at and within your perimeter, it is still possible for unwanted visitors to get close to your buildings and critical assets. Access control should be managed very carefully here as this is typically the point of impact for malicious behaviour. Intruders are a security and safety concern as they can cause damage to vital equipment and unknowingly access areas which are hazardous to their own health. Using an integrated solution which combines credential validation, multifactor authorization and video verification will help you know exactly who is on your premises and what buildings they are trying to access. It also enables you to intervene as necessary to prevent unauthorized people or vehicles from entering critical or dangerous areas. 

Beyond physical threats 

Although intruders can cause significant damage, some malicious actors don’t have to set foot on your property to inflict damage. Cyber criminals can access and take control of networks and outdated legacy systems remotely. In fact, we’ve seen this happen before. In 2021, hackers remotely accessed the computer system of a water treatment facility in Florida and changed the chemical levels in the system briefly before it was spotted and reversed. Had they been successful then the impact would have been catastrophic. 

Mitigating the threat of cyberattacks involves a multi-pronged security approach to ensure a strong defence. This is comprised of utilizing devices which are designed with cybersecurity in mind, updating software regularly to ensure protection against the latest threats and modernizing your systems to protect against organized and well-funded cyberattacks.

Improving operational efficiency and business continuity 

Any interruption to water supplies can have far-reaching and drastic consequences, especially if it is for extended periods of time. As such, business continuity takes on an even more important meaning when considering water treatment plants. Security incidents aren’t the only threats to continuity, and you need to ensure that your equipment is in good working order to avoid system breakdowns.

Historically, you would only become aware of an issue after a piece of equipment had malfunctioned or if it happened to be detected during a routine inspection. The ensuing investigation and repairs would result in unplanned downtime, with an associated significant financial loss. However, we now have technology solutions that can detect the earliest sign of dysfunction before it has an impact. 

For example, equipment failure is often preceded by an increase in temperature. You can use a thermometric camera to monitor surface temperature, treating any unexpected increases as a key indicator of dysfunction. This allows you to intervene before failure and shutdown occurs and has the positive benefit of reducing costs and improving overall resilience. You can also collect and analyze historical operational data to identify trends and implement processes that mitigate issues over time. 

A word on safety 

As an employer you have a duty of care to ensure the health and safety of your employees, the public and wider community. This involves everything from providing the right personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensuring that the appropriate signage and preventative measures are in place, in compliance with regulation. It’s even more critical considering the type of hazardous chemicals that are stored and used at your facility and the potential impact of contaminated or compromised water entering the community and environment. 

You can utilize video surveillance technology to support the assessment of regulatory compliance and intervene if non-compliance is detected. For example, identifying whether an employee is wearing the right PPE within an area and restricting access if they are not.  You can also implement solutions which monitor and detect falls so employees can be attended to quickly and assess environments to alert teams if fire or smoke is present. Audio enables you to deliver messages to workers to help preserve life and ensure their wellbeing.

Protecting a vital societal resource 

Threats against critical infrastructure are only becoming more complex and sophisticated, and a successful incident can have a direct impact on the wider society. As a result, it’s important to build resilience into the safety and security operations in your water and wastewater treatment facilities to help you withstand and recover from threats – whether they are malicious or not. Investing in technology which supports your security, safety and operational efforts is key maintaining continuity and resilience. In this way you can address the challenges of today while mitigating the risks of tomorrow.