Public Water Supplies in the United States and the European Union: International Security Procedures and Vulnerabilities

This paper will focus on the potential threats to nations’ public water supplies and what actions the United States and the European Union have taken to reduce their vulnerability to those threats. The dangers, vulnerabilities, and regulations analyzed will be primarily those that pertain to the contamination of water supplies by biological agents. Water is crucial to public health and human survival. A nation’s water supply structure is one of the primary structures on which its overall prosperity is contingent. A country must not only have the means to supply water to its citizens for consumption, but also to support agriculture and industry. Over the past decade, many countries have determined that an attack on their water supply is not only likely, but, if accomplished, would have detrimental consequences. As a result, nations have begun to implement procedures for preventing biological attacks to their public water supply, detecting attacks, and responding to biological attacks.