Water storage and supply facilities to be protected against terrorist attacks

All hydrotechnic facilities should be equipped in a proper way to preventterrorist attacks, a high-ranking official of the Russian Interior Ministrysaid at a briefing today. He was quoted as saying, there are currentlyaround 30,000 hydrotechnic facilities in Russia, and floodways and coastalbuildings of many of them need to be updated. The official also pointed outall specified facilities were reliably protected from explosions, while inthe event of water intoxication such water would be prohibited from flowinginto the plumbing system. In 1997 a commission of the Russian governmentmonitored by the Interior Ministry was established to improve the measuresaimed at protecting hydrotechnic facilities. This commission will develop anumber of measures aimed at seeking out financial funds for securing theprotection of hydrotechnic facilities in Russia before the end of August2002. .