For twenty-two days the pumps were drawing water contaminated with faeces into Gostivar's municipal water supply. The ban on drinking has been in force since 17 July. Today Gostivar entered a fourth week in which the tap delivers liquid fit only for mopping the floor. And while residents queue at bottled water distribution points, the parties argue over whose fault it is.

The number mentioned least is the most important: between 40 and 50 people a day are going to the Gostivar hospital. Some have symptoms from the contaminated water, some are summer viruses. The Health Ministry says the situation is normalising and the numbers are falling. When fifty people a day seek help, "normalising" is a word that needs explaining.

The date that irritates everyone

The municipal crisis headquarters says testing is done daily from seven locations. The ban will only be lifted after three consecutive clean results. That's correct methodology - there's no cutting corners with bacteriology. The problem is that the official analyses are scheduled for 20 August, which means residents must wait another two weeks without a clear answer.

SDSM says the head of the Protection and Rescue Directorate publicly confirmed there is a dangerous bacterium in the water, and that the same government is now asking citizens to wait until 20 August. VMRO-DPMNE responds with documents from the previous government's time, when cases of unsafe drinking water were also recorded.

Both sides are right, and that's the worst part

If it's true that there were earlier findings of unsafe water, then the question isn't which party is more to blame, but why those findings led to nothing. A finding of unsafe drinking water is a document that demands a response. If that document existed in 2018, and in 2021, and nobody responded, then July's crisis isn't an incident - it's a schedule.

Among other things, the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Gostivar has opened an investigation against the director of the public utility "Komunalec" and two managers. That is the only line in the whole story that isn't a political statement but a proceeding with consequences.

The water is now being hyperchlorinated. Which means the system is trying to compensate with chemistry for what maintenance should have prevented. A Gostivar resident turning on the tap tomorrow isn't looking for a culprit for television. They're looking for a date.