Beersheba pours cold water on wastage at car washes

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The city of Beersheba has begun cracking down on local car washes that fail to adhere to water conservation measures, reports www.local.co.il. Mayor Rubik Danilovitch recently set up a team headed by Deputy Mayor Tal El-Al that called 12 local car wash owners in for "urgent clarification," with the result that the owners agreed to install water-saving mechanisms at their businesses immediately. According to the report, the head of the business licensing branch, Malka Gal, told a municipal managerial meeting recently that 20 car washes were operating around Beersheba, 13 of which were still using hoses to wash cars manually. Following the meeting, the new municipal team, backed up by representatives from the local water authority, police, fire-fighters and the Ministry for Environmental Protection, "invited" 12 car-wash owners in for what the report called "urgent clarification." The report said that after the discussion, the car-wash owners agreed to install water-saving mechanisms that enable cars to be washed with a spray comprising 70 percent air and 30% water. El-Al said the issue of water wastage had to be tackled urgently in view of the chronic water crisis in Israel.