Part of Prilep was left without water after the main water pipe burst, and the scene was almost ironic: the water from the rupture flooded the fire station itself - the people who put out fires ended up with a flooded yard and garages.

The rupture happened in the early morning, around 5:30, when the primary water line burst on „Lece Koteski" street. A large amount of water spilled into the yard and into part of the Territorial Fire Unit's buildings. According to first estimates, it's damage to a main pipeline with a diameter of 300 millimetres. The „Vodovod i kanalizacija" utility says the exact scale won't be known until the pipe is fully dug up.

The numbers show how serious it is: to bring the water level down, a pump with a capacity of around 1,800 litres a minute was set up, while the leak from the rupture itself is estimated at around 1,500 litres a minute. Almost as much as gets pumped out, that much pours back in - a picture that on its own says what state the infrastructure is in. Mayor Dejan Prodanoski appealed for patience, promising a quick return to normal.

The work is being done carefully because underground electrical cables run right next to the water line - so one fault carries the risk of another. On 14 and 15 July, Prilep will have disrupted supply in that part of the city. But the bigger picture is familiar to everyone in this country: pipes that burst, infrastructure that has been left to rot for decades with no serious renewal, and citizens once again waiting for their water to come back. How many times does a pipe have to burst before someone decides it's cheaper to replace it than to keep patching it up?