CONTAMINATING BLESSED WATER

Last night, I was again at the Pasir Panjang Tua Pek Kong Temple with Lai Yoong.  I had accompanied Lai Yoong there to offer prayers to the deities and also for her to seek blessings for a safe and pleasant journey to China.  She will be visiting the Hakka Village with her Aunt Josephine and Uncle Tommy.
After the two of us had performed our prayers, we went to the section where the giant statues of the deities were installed. Both of us wanted to get some blessed water which pours from a Wu Lou that Kuan Yin is holding.  What we noticed was that people have started throwing coins into the lotus shaped vessel which is used to catch the holy water.  Hmm ... perhaps the visitors who took the holy water wanted to make a donation. However, I think that it might not be too sanitary to do so as coins and paper money have exchanged hands for countless times and by throwing them into the vessel, the water inside might be contaminated.
p/s:  What Lai Yoong and I usually do is we collect the water straight from the pipe or we just stand under the statue to get a sprinkling of the water pouring from Kuan Yin's Wu Lou.