The illegal dump in Vizbegovo is once again overflowing with waste, and a strong unpleasant smell is spreading from the site. Residents are worried - and they have serious reason to be, because in previous years the same location was a frequent target of fires, with the burning of piled-up waste polluting the air in Skopje and the surrounding area.

That is the first part. The second is on the other side of the city, in Arachinovo, and it is already burning.

"Fires like these happen almost every year"

That is not a sentence from a citizens' initiative. It is a sentence from the mayor of Arachinovo, Daut Bekjiri, in a written reply.

Bekjiri announced that the fire at the site has been contained, with the Crisis Management Centre assisting in the operation. He acknowledges the problem is long-standing and adds: "Unfortunately, fires like these happen almost every year, which is why we must also work on a long-term, systemic solution."

That is an honest answer. And that is precisely why his next sentence deserves careful reading.

The solution is a regional landfill. Which has yet to operate

According to the mayor, the permanent solution is foreseen through an EU-supported project - establishing a regional waste management system with regional landfills across the country. Once the regional landfill at Drisla is built and operational, waste from Arachinovo will be taken there.

"The realisation of this process takes time, but the expectation is that in the next few years... this problem will finally be solved in a lasting way," Bekjiri says.

In the meantime, he says, the municipality has set up a waste sorting station that will help manage waste better and reduce uncontrolled dumping.

So we have an acknowledged problem, an acknowledged annual repetition, and a solution whose deadline is "the next few years". The Crisis Management Centre says all the competent institutions have already been consulted about finding a solution for relocating the dump. Consulted - that is the verb.

What that smoke means once it settles into the basin

The Green Humane City organisation, on whose initiative a team went out to the site, lists the concrete consequences: toxic smoke descends and lingers in the basin, heavy metals penetrate deep into the soil, and exposure affects acute and chronic respiratory conditions - asthma, bronchitis, obstructive pulmonary disease. They also point to an increased cancer risk from prolonged exposure to toxic gases, along with damage to the cardiovascular and nervous systems.

Dragan Dimkovikj from that organisation goes further and argues that years of dumping and burning waste at illegal sites directly violates the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia.

Smoke does not recognise municipal boundaries

Skopje has that unfortunate geometry: a basin that holds on to everything set alight inside it. Vizbegovo to the north, Arachinovo to the northeast - and responsibility for the two sites is split between different municipalities, while the consequence is shared by the whole city.

Notice too what is missing from the whole story. From Vizbegovo there is no statement from anyone in charge. No announcement of whether the waste will be removed, when, and who will pay for it. What there is: a smell, piled-up waste and a history of fires in the same place.

The difference between the two locations is not the danger - that is identical. The difference is that for one of them, somebody at least answered a question.