Over 200 cameras against illegal dumps and vandalism in Skopje, the City awaits approval from the Personal Data Agency

The "Lotos" fountain in the City Park was restored after many years. The benches around it have so far been covered in graffiti three times, and each time the city's public enterprise has repainted them. With that example, Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski announced the City of Skopje's next measure: more than 200 cameras at critical points across the city.

"We are now waiting for final approval from the Personal Data Protection Agency. We will install more than 200 cameras at critical points across the City of Skopje. They will cover places where dumps are created and parks that are constantly under attack," Gjorgjievski said. The money spent on repairing the damage, according to him, could go towards new parks. "The City of Skopje doesn't belong to Orce, or to any political party. The city belongs to all the people of Skopje," he said.

The mayor also listed what is being built where rubbish used to pile up. In Butel, an 86,000-square-metre park is in its final phase, on a site that used to be an illegal dump. A park of over 70,000 square metres has been announced in Karpoš, along with landscaping of a space of almost 100,000 square metres in Aerodrom, which should be up and running by the end of next year. For the "Vardarište" landfill, which covers more than 600,000 square metres, one phase of the work is complete; soil decontamination with government support comes next, and work to turn it into a park is expected to start in spring.

Cameras are a logical step: whoever dumps bulky waste by the roadside rarely does it in front of witnesses. But a camera is only useful if at the other end of the footage there is someone who will identify the culprit, write the fine and collect it. How many fines for illegal dumping has the City issued so far, and how many of them have been paid? Without that answer, the cameras will be witnesses nobody ever questions.

And until the Personal Data Protection Agency gives the green light, the benches by "Lotos" will keep getting repainted. For the fourth time, if need be.