With the memories of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris just on two weeks ago now, France is taking no chances at the upcoming Global Climate Summit that begins in Paris on 30 November.
The summit will host approximately 45,000 attendees, including 138 heads of state, and it would make the perfect target for a terrorist attack.
Last week, Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that there could well be the risk of a biological or chemical attack along the lines of the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.
The water systems would be the perfect target, and Jean-Louis Fiamenghi, head of security for French water and waste company Veolia agrees, saying “A terrorist could very well take advantage of this gathering to strike,â€
Although plans were made by Veolia and counter-terrorism experts ages ago to protect the water resources, during the climate summit, the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris on 13 November and which killed 130 people and injured many others, have forced all security forces to be on high alert.
Veolia have installed sensors in the water network which monitor chlorine levels, pressure, temperature and conductivity – all parameters that should give a signal if there is the least bit of contamination of the water supply.
The same type of water sensors were used by Veolia during the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010 as well as for the duration of the London Olympics in 2012.
While there has been no threat of any attack of biological, nuclear or chemical nature at any Veolia sites across France, according to Fiamenghi, it is important that the world leaders meeting at Le Bourget, north of Paris to discuss plans to prevent global temperatures rising more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, are able to do so in a safe environment.
Water is important and water is in danger so we all need to cognisant of the fact that such summits are very necessary and vital to the health of this planet and all who live on it. A terrorist strike against such a summit would end in more catastrophe than just a few human lives – let us hope it does not happen.
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