'Miracle' rescues U.S. city's atrocious water

Trash bags remain over water fountains at First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan, to keep people from drinking the water, CNN has reported.

It's because the city's water system was found to be contaminated with lead.

Every Thursday there is a line of cars for more than a mile as residents wait for supplies of bottled water.

The crisis began some five years ago and is far from over.

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And politicians "traipsing in and out of here for their political campaigns" isn't helping much.

Into this tense situation has come something that Breaking Israel News describes as "nothing short of miraculous."

It's a gift to the residents of Flint from entrepreneur Armstrong Williams, who donated a Watergen atmospheric water generator to the Greater Flint Holy Temple, which is a main water distribution center.

Bishop Roger Jones, the pastor, says the hope it represents is huge.

"At the beginning of the crisis, 10 percent of the people just left the community because there was a sense of hopelessness," he told BIN. "This was a manmade problem and no government institution was helping us."

The city has been in crisis mode since 2014 when officials changed the drinking water source to the Flint River. As a result, some 100,000 residents were exposed to elevated lead levels in their water.

An order soon followed for residents to use only bottled or filtered water.

But Jones said the Israeli-made water generator was a big change.

"That Watergen has brought about a sense of hope," he told BIN. "It has created excitement and expectations like an oasis in a desert, like Miriam's Well in the desert. The children of Israel knew that if they could just get to the next spot of water, they would live to see the promised land."

The church now provides water to 460 cars a week.

"We never turn it off and every day people come in for water every day," he told BIN. "Even on Sunday, we have sometimes 100 bags of water at the altar and thirsty people come up and get their water."

The company was founded in 2009 by former combat reconnaissance commander Arye Kohavi, who conceived of the idea while sitting in a tank sweating and wanting water.

Yehuda Kaploun, president of Watergen USA, said, "He didn’t understand why, if there was so much humidity in the air in the tank, why did he have to go out and risk being shot just to get a drink."

The question led to the development of a patented system that initially was intended for use in the military.

But its aims expanded after it was acquired in 2016 by Michael Mirilashvili, a Russian-Israeli billionaire and vice president of the World Jewish Congress, BIN reported.

It now also focuses on the 2.1 billion people around the world who don't have access to clean water.

It also responds to emergencies, having sent generators to Texas and Florida after hurricanes hit.