Vodno is not just a mountain above Skopje. It is the green belt that shields the city from erosion, the lungs that Skopje's residents fill every weekend. That is why any decision allowing construction on its slopes is not a minor local zoning matter - it is a question of the whole city's safety. And the Council of the Municipality of Centar gave exactly such a green light: with 13 votes „for” and nine „against” it passed the draft detailed urban plan for the Barutana neighbourhood.

According to the citizens' initiative „A Chance for Centar”, the new plan allows the construction of another 25 large structures in an area flagged as affected by erosion, 24 of them private houses. „The Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats together believe that the right to property and to build matters more than citizens' right to be safe and to keep Vodno from collapsing onto their heads”, the initiative reacts. A hard sentence, but behind it lies a concrete risk - erosion and land sliding that, as they warn, could have consequences for the whole city.

Who voted how

The vote says more than the plan itself. Voting against were the councillors of „A Chance for Centar”, Levica, ZNAM and two more members of the Council - one from VMRO-DPMNE and one from SDSM. So the two largest parties, apart from those individuals, ended up on the same side when it came to building on Vodno. When the opposition and the ruling party unexpectedly agree, it is worth asking - whose interests does that agreement serve?

The mayor of Centar, Goran Gerasimovski, defends the decision. According to him, this is not about opening up new urbanisation but about correcting an existing solution. He also stressed that on one confiscated plot, instead of luxury apartments, a home for the elderly is planned, and that the Vodno plots will serve ordinary citizens, not haciendas. An explanation that has its logic - but one that will be measured by what actually gets built, not by what was promised at a session.

The draft plan now goes to public consultation, where citizens will be able to submit objections, after which comes the final version. That is the moment when the word belongs to those who live under and around Vodno. The history of building in Skopje has taught us that „correcting an existing solution” has too often meant a new concrete surface where there used to be greenery.

So the question is not whether Gerasimovski has good intentions. The question is whether the institutions are capable of resisting the pressure to build where nature says „no”. Every push into Vodno's forest belt is a bet with risk - and the risk, when it comes to erosion above a city of half a million people, is not paid for with money alone.