Gostivar’s water currently remains restricted exclusively for technical use, while there are still no guidelines that it is safe for drinking and cooking.
As PM Mickoski explained on Wednesday, following the hyper-chlorination process, it was established that fecal bacteria had been completely eliminated from the network, but due to prolonged non-use and aggressive flushing of the installations, a new residual bacterium has now appeared in the pipes.
Mickoski made those comments after a conversation with Interior Minister Toshkovski, who also heads the Steering Committee. Teams are actively working on the ground. Mickoski expects the challenge to be overcome and the water to be safe for drinking again.
Regarding accusations from SDSM about the Gostivar water contamination case and its demands for accountability, Mickoski said such criticism comes from a person (Filipche) during whose term as Health Minister people had burned alive in the modular hospital in Tetovo and who held the record for COVID-19 deaths because his focus was on PR and campaigns rather than securing vaccines on time. He noted that in 2021, when Filipche was the Health Minister, there had been over 400 official reports of poor water quality in Gostivar.