Councilor spouts off over stadium water waste

Haifa city councilor Yaron Hanan was furious when he happened to pass the Kiryat Eliezer sports stadium one day last week only to see that the sprinklers were working during the hottest part of the day, reports www.mynet.co.il. Hanan said he tried to call the city to have the sprinklers turned off but waited in vain "for long minutes" as large quantities of water went to waste. According to the report, after the incident Hanan sent a fiery letter to Mayor Yona Yahav: "It is not enough that this year you have continued, by completing ignoring every request to you on the subject, to plant seasonal plants and flowers that require large amounts of water in all the city's gardens, to plant lawns on the seashore and at city squares, and to ignore the waste of water at the beaches, now it also becomes clear that the watering system operates in some places precisely during the hottest hours," Hanan wrote. He said that while he was trying to get the sprinklers turned off at the stadium, he was joined by local residents who were angered that while they were being made to restrict water consumption or pay heavy penalties, the city was wasting so much water and "setting a bad example for all of us." No response was reported from the mayor.