Saudis reject Mecca holy water scare

    

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, - Saudi authorities have rejected claims that holy Zamzam water from a spring inside the Grand Mosque complex of Mecca is polluted and stressed there were no health risks.

            The Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs said in a statement Saturday

it had no reports suggesting there was any issue with Zamzam water which was

safe for drinking.

            A spokesman for the presidency, Ahmad al-Mansuri, told AFP daily samples

were being taken from the 31-metre (105-foot) deep well, and measures were

taken to ensure it was safe.

                 According to Islamic tradition, the spring has never gone dry for over

4,000 years and pilgrims treat the water as sacred and having miraculous

healing powers.

            The British media had reported this week that the well was polluted and

that drinking from it could cause diseases such as cancer.

                 Meanwhile, the Saudi embassy in London issued a statement insisting Zamzam

water was "not polluted" and that analysis at European laboratories in March

confirmed it to be safe.

            King Abdullah inaugurated in September a 700-million-riyal ($187 million)

factory capable of bottling 200,000 bottles a day in Mecca.

                 Worshippers at the Grand Mosque are able to drink Zamzam water from

hundreds of scattered taps. Saudi authorities have banned any commercial

exports of the water.

                 Muslims believe Zamzam came into being to provide Hagar, Abraham's wife

according to Islamic teachings, and her baby Ishmael with water in the hot, dry

valley of Mecca where God ordered Abraham to leave them.

            In her desperate search for water for the baby, Hagar ran seven times

between the hillocks of Safa and Marwa until she saw water running between the

legs of her baby.

            Part of the hajj pilgrim of Muslims is called "Saiy", a run between Safa

and Marwa in commemoration of Hagar's run in search of water. – AFP