"The river Treska is not a waste channel - it is life." The sentence comes from anglers, not from an environmental institution. And that is exactly what is worth noting: the alarm over dead fish in the upper course of the Treska near Kičevo was raised by a sport fishing association, not by the authorities.

The "Hunter Fish" association reported the fish die-off and demanded urgent sampling of the water and of the dead fish, a laboratory analysis, a check of every possible source of pollution and public publication of the findings.

What exactly is being asked for

The request is precise and leaves no room for stalling: samples immediately, laboratory analysis of the dead specimens, an investigation into whether this is pollution or some other intervention endangering life in the river, and concrete measures to protect the ecosystem.

"Water is a treasure for all of us, and the river Treska is one of the most important water ecosystems in Kičevo", the association says.

Who is waiting for whom

Dead fish are a visible indicator. They are also the first thing anyone notices when something in the water has gone wrong - which is why the anglers reacted first, they are on the river every day. The question that remains is how quickly the institutions get to the same spot.

Because a water analysis is not a complex operation. It is a matter of one team going out into the field and one report being published. Whether we get that report, or whether Treska becomes one more river where we know something happened but never found out what - the coming days will show.