jerusalem (jps) | In the spirit of the holiday in the Holy Land, Jerusalem’s central water company is switching over to kosher-for-Passover tap water.
The move comes after Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski asked the city’s main supplier of water to make sure that only Passover-safe drilled water will run through Jerusalem pipes during the holiday.
The water will be directly drilled from Rosh Ha’ayin area and then sent to Jerusalem in pipes, due to haredi concern that the water pumped from the Sea of Galilee to Jerusalem on a daily basis may contain traces of leaven thrown into the water by picnickers or fishermen, said Moshe Bagaon, a spokesperson for the Gihon water company.
The leaven-free water will begin flowing into Jerusalem homes this week, he said, and will continue through the duration of the weeklong holiday.
Bagaon said there will be no additional cost to the company for the operation, but added that the national water supplier Mekorot will have to pump more water out of the Sea of Galilee after the holiday in order to return Jerusalem-area wells to their previous levels.
The special Passover tap water also will be running in the homes of Jerusalem’s 230,000 Arab residents who get their water from the same company.