One Ottawa mother is concerned her four-year-old daughter will get sick after she went swimming at Petrie Island and accidentally swallowed water.

Even though the beach was open to swimmers that day, test results for E. coli in the water weren't available until 24 hours later.

"Everything appeared to be fine. I saw kids swallowing water accidentally, and then we find out on Monday it's 10 times the limit," said Laura Moses.

"I will not be taking her in the water again."

The city tests the water at its public beaches every day but those test results aren't available until 24 hours later.

"That's the only test that we have right now. It takes 24 hours to do the bacterial culture," said Jean-Guy Albert of the City of Ottawa.

Three City of Ottawa beaches were closed to swimmers Wednesday because of high E. coli levels. No-swimming advisories were up at Mooney's Bay (E. coli count: 348), Petrie East Bay (E. coli count: 536) and Petrie River Beaches (E. coli count: 238).

A day earlier, Mooney's Bay, Westboro and Petrie East Bay were all closed to swimmers.

Test results from water collected at Petrie Island's East Bay on Monday showed that the water along the shoreline had an E. coli count of 1,000.

The city advises people not to swim whenever the coliform count is 100 or greater for two consecutive days, or the count is 200 or above on a single day.

Swimming in water with high E. coli can increase the risk of gastrointestinal illness, as well as eye and ear infections.

Moses says she's now keeping a close eye on her daughter for any signs of illness. She also wants the city to find a better way to warn the public of unsafe swimming conditions.

"We should be able to get the results faster. It's not fair that it takes 24 hours because you could be swimming and think you're fine and find out tomorrow that you're not fine yesterday," said Moses.

"I think more money needs to go into protecting the water to begin with and make sure this stuff doesn't happen in the first place."

Heavy rain is the biggest factor behind high E. coli counts in Ottawa's rivers. The rain overwhelms the sewage system, causing hundreds of millions of litres of raw sewage to flow into the river.

The city has already spent $100 million trying to fix the problem. The mayor says another $145 million is needed for infrastructure upgrades.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Karen Soloman