Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel toured the southern Golan Heights with Director-General Shaul Goldstein of the Nature and Parks Authority and the Deputy Director-General Itamar Grotto of the Health Ministry, against the backdrop of recent cases of leptospirosis (Achberet in Hebrew because the illness is spread by rodents), in order to examine closely the environmental effects of the flow of water into the rivers and to examine solutions to reduce pollution in some of the streams in the area.
Sticking their feet into the clean water of the Haketzinim (Officers) Pool in Ein Almin, the three called on travelers to continue hiking in the Golan Heights and the rivers and springs permitted for bathing, in accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of Health and the Nature and Parks Authority, as opposed to those where it is forbidden to bathe.