(haipo) – A question submitted by members of the City Council David Etzioni and Zeev Sonenzon – Faction הבית שלנו, raises serious questions about the Haifa Municipality's policy regarding advertising natural water sources in the city as recreational sites. This is despite the fact that the municipality and the Ministry of Health do not supervise, sample or monitor the quality of the water in them. The main concern: exposure of the public, especially children, to serious health risks, alongside the lack of official warnings from the municipality.
Advertisements encourage visits – without checks and without warnings
In recent years, the municipality has been posting invitations on social media to visit natural water sources such as Ma'ayan Sheakh, Bustan Kiat, and the small pool in Nahal Ahuza. However, inquiries by council members with municipal officials indicate that there is no monitoring of the water quality at these sites. The Ministry of Health also does not routinely sample natural water sources within the city.
Despite this, the city publications do not include any health or safety warnings, not even a hint.
Serious health hazards: from infections to infectious diseases
These sites are located in the heart of urban nature and serve as a source of drinking water for wild animals: wild boars, jackals, rodents, and birds. This situation may lead to a number of health risks:
- Leptospirosis (mouse disease) – A serious infectious disease transmitted through animal urine, which can cause kidney and liver damage and even death.
- Intestinal bacteria Such as fecal coliforms, salmonella, and shigella – infections that cause severe diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration.
- Parasites Such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia – cause prolonged diarrhea, especially in children.
Alongside biological contamination, council members also point out chemical risks stemming from urban runoff, sewer overflows, and infrastructure failures that could contaminate the water.
Safety hazards: drowning, injuries, and mosquito breeding
Beyond the health risks, the sites are not monitored from a safety perspective:
- Variable and unknown depth, no lifeguard.
- A bottom that may contain slippery rocks, deep mud, or hazardous waste.
- Stagnant water sources are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, including mosquitoes that transmit West Nile fever.
"It is the municipality's responsibility to protect public health"
Etzioni and Sonenzon point out that, by law, the municipality is obligated to protect public health in the open areas under its management, including streams and natural water sources. Therefore, they demand that the municipality clarify why it does not post warning signs at the sites, and why its online advertisements do not include information about the risks.
Four key questions addressed to the municipality
The questionnaire includes four direct questions:
- What inspection, sampling, or monitoring activities are currently being carried out in natural water sources?
- Who in the municipality is responsible for supervising and treating these water sources, in the absence of involvement from the Ministry of Health?
- Why doesn't the municipality warn the public in its advertisements about the health and safety risks?
- What is the municipality's plan for clarifying the risks and protecting public health when visiting natural water sources?
Broad issue
Currently, council members are awaiting the municipality's response. The query shines a spotlight on a broader issue: how to balance the desire to encourage urban nature tourism with the obligation to protect public health.
Did the article interest you?
The questions described in the article that were asked are not in the right direction.
This is not what the warnings should be, but what the municipality should do to have a good reputation.
What should be demanded from the municipality is:
Take care of all infrastructure that pollutes Haifa's nature.
Take care of all sewage infrastructure that pollutes Haifa's nature.
To treat all waste discarded in Haifa's natural environment.
To address all other hazards occurring in Haifa's nature.
To address all the harmful and polluting factors of Haifa's nature.
Conduct field trips several times a year, during the busiest periods at least once a month, on each of the nature trails, streams, springs, waterfalls, the sea, cycling trails, etc.
Find any existing hazards in the area and immediately call in personnel to immediately deal with the hazards.
Take water samples as often as necessary.
In artificial pools (like one of the pools in Nahal Sheach), change the water and clean the pool as often as necessary.
Send supervision.
Get to know the trails and natural hotspots in Haifa.
Recognize when there are hazards.
Treat immediately when there are hazards.
To resolve all these matters from root to end.
And make sure these symptoms don't come back.
In the last month alone, posts and articles have repeatedly been posted about sewage pollution in various locations in the Haifa countryside.
The 106 hotline didn't know about it, and this week there were representatives at 106 who still didn't know about it.
It is also necessary that until all of this happens, everyone, but everyone, despite the workload that does not always allow it, call 106 about any hazard to our nature, and demand to open a call, receive immediate treatment, open a complaint in public inquiries (106 can do this in the same phone call), and call again the next day and demand status and answers.
And the same goes for the urine and waste that fill our streets.
Health and preserving nature are a must, and we also pay a lot so that the municipality has the resources to take care of it.
Haifa Municipality, like Taiba Municipality, is not built for complexity
The article is very important. The municipality has a duty to ensure the safety of travelers who come to the sites.
1 Safety from health hazards
2 Safety from drowning
It's good that someone is raising the dangers associated with the sites mentioned in the article.
A very interesting article – very.
Where is the free food reference?
Urgent!
Question #5: Aside from the need to warn the public, what does the municipality (or anyone?) intend to do so that these sites can become pollution-free tourist destinations?
Question No. 6: How did the municipality even come to advertise health-hazardous sites as a tourist recommendation?
What a disgusting term, we already miss the cliché. Yona destroyed the city hall along with some of his deputies, ugh, when will this end??
So now they'll close it down... because it's healthiest to stay home
Nobody is treating the valleys.
Let's start with this.
Everything in the municipality is a mess – so is this too
The query only reveals the pettiness and pathos of the questioners. The Ministry of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency are responsible for water quality, for monitoring, for reporting contamination. Not the municipality. The fact that the municipality recommends nature sites and hiking in its territory is welcome and beautiful.
In my opinion, really poor.
Did the municipality announce that there was a danger when sewage flowed into Wadi Sheikh, which stank as far as the Kabbir neighborhood? No, not only did it not warn or take more than 14 days to deal with it, it also did not announce it. If there were proper infrastructure and working systems, that would be true, but that is not the case in Haifa, unfortunately.
What is both pathetic and idiotic is to recommend a "tourist" site when it is polluted and endangers visitors.
Even shifting responsibility from the office to the "shelter" is very unwise!
Too bad you have no idea what you're talking about.
Because of such irresponsible idiots, and the mindset they bring, so many nature spots in the country have been closed or blocked - lest someone sue the municipality or the local authority.
Try to remember how open and accessible nature was 2-3 decades ago.
Stupid and lazy municipality, I saw the spring neglected and dry in the summer, full of wasps, mice and animal feces