Around 6,000 people near Bitola drink water that has been proven unsafe - and not in some remote village off the map, but a few hundred meters from the sign at the town's edge. One 90-year-old resident put it most bluntly: "We're 200 meters from the Bitola sign, and we have no water."

The problem covers 31 rural villages. Over 120 households on the outskirts of Bitola aren't connected to the city grid at all, and the village of Bistrica, with about 700 residents, relies on its own self-built water supply. Tests by the Public Health Center paint an alarming picture: 87 percent of samples showed microbiological contamination (coliform bacteria and E. coli - an indicator of fecal pollution), 38 percent failed the physical-chemical standards, and a full 92 percent had no chlorine at all.

The institutions, as usual, pass the ball. The municipality says the projects require additional paperwork and depend on the General Urban Plan. The water utility says the connection is "technically possible," but that resident consent and the right infrastructure are missing. The Public Health Center, meanwhile, calls the situation a "major epidemiological risk." Everyone talks, no one acts.

This is a story that sums up the state's entire attitude toward rural life. Water is not a luxury or a privilege - it is the most basic thing a society owes its own periphery. When the water turns murky after rain and 92 percent of samples have no chlorine, the question isn't technical but moral: how long can a village stay thirsty next to water, and who will answer if someone falls ill?