Water safe to drink in Modi'in after contamination found over weekend

Residents were told to boil all water after traces of e-coli found.

By JONAH NEWMAN
water 88 (photo credit: )
water 88
(photo credit: )
While much of the country was wrapped up in news about swine flu, residents of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut spent the weekend wondering if their water might make them sick. The Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut municipality announced Monday at noon that water in the area was safe to drink, following news late Friday from the Health Ministry that a water test had found contamination. The contamination was found in a routine test at the Mekorot National Water Company facility outside the city, which provides water to Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, Modi'in Illit and Yavne. Because the news came after the beginning of Shabbat, municipal officials sent messengers to post announcements outside synagogues, in addition to automated phone calls to all the houses in the city. Approximately a quarter of the city's nearly 75,000 residents are religious. Residents were told to boil water before drinking it or using it to cook or to brush their teeth. The municipality's warning said no special medicine was needed and that anyone who experienced stomach pain should consult their regular physician. According to one resident, supermarkets ran out of mineral water on Saturday as people rushed to make sure they would have clean water to drink. "I thought [the municipality] did very well," said Yossi Garr, who lives in Modi'in with his wife and three children, of the response to the contamination. "We daven [pray] in a school, and the fact that they knew to post a notice there is very impressive."