Mladost Lake near Veles is closed for swimming for the third summer in a row. And for the third summer running, the story is the same: algae, foam, green-brown sludge along the shore and one single recommendation - don't get in the water. What was once the favourite summer spot for the people of Veles has become water no one wades into.

According to findings by the Veles Public Health Centre, a sanitary-hygiene inspection recorded visible algal blooms, a gelatinous mass and foam across a significant stretch of the shoreline. Analyses of samples from the City Beach and the beach by the “Romantik” hotel showed high turbidity, an increased presence of ammonia and disturbed oxygen saturation. The ban stays until a specialist institution confirms there are no cyanobacteria and their toxins.

An important detail that must not be skipped: the published documents do not confirm that cyanotoxins have already been detected - but nor that there are none. And when the absence of a poison cannot be proven, the only sensible decision is to keep the water off-limits. That is caution, not panic.

Meanwhile, the story is spreading to the taps too. SDSM councillors in Veles have called for emergency testing of the drinking water in the town and in the surrounding settlements, claiming that E. coli was registered in part of the village water supply, including in samples linked to school buildings. They tied the request to the recent cases of unsafe water in Gostivar, Valandovo, Lešok and Kruševo.

And there is the true picture of the summer of 2026: while the state boasts about tourism, in more than one town the water - both the kind you swim in and the kind you drink - is becoming a problem. Mladost Lake was originally built in 1962 to irrigate vineyards. Today it doesn't even serve that properly, because the sludge needs mechanical cleaning and dredging that has been put off for years. Who will answer for it when irrigation is the only function left, and even that hangs by a thread?