The Centar municipality is carrying out emergency rodent control because of an increase in rats. The operation runs for two days and covers locations in Kapishtec, Debar Maalo, Bunjakovec and Kale - four of the most expensive addresses in the city.

The list of locations is specific, and that is exactly what makes it interesting. In Kapishtec the treated spot is Zagrebska street number 28, opposite the former KTK, by the bins. In Debar Maalo - Radnjanska street by the bins, the area around the Bunjakovec market and part of Ruzveltova. In Bunjakovec - Borka Taleski from the "J. H. Pestalozzi" primary school to the Greek embassy, the junction of Stefan Jakimov Dedov with Apostol Guslarot, including the manholes around the derelict building next to the school, the multi-storey car park and the sheds of the public utility "Komunalna higiena". In Kale - Lazar Lichenoski, near Sports Medicine and the Customs Administration.

By the bins, by the bins, by the bins

Read the list again. Nearly every location on it is defined by the same marker: by the bins. A market, a car park, a derelict building.

That is not a coincidence and it is not a mystery. Rats do not appear out of thin air - they appear where there is food and shelter. A bin that is not emptied on time, rubbish piled beside it, a derelict building nobody has entered in years and a manhole nobody has checked - that is infrastructure for rodents, built out of negligence.

Centar mayor Goran Gerasimovski says measures are taken immediately following reports from residents and that the situation will continue to be monitored. He calls on residents to report such occurrences so action can be taken in time.

The response is correct. But "emergency" rodent control means the regular kind was either not enough or came late. If the measure was triggered by residents' reports, it means residents spotted the rats before the services did.

The same mayor, in the same days, is telling the public utilities "Komunalna higiena" and "Parks and Greenery" to finish their duties and be out in the field regularly - which is a perfectly clear diagnosis of where the root of the problem lies. It is also hard to miss that one of the treated locations is the "Komunalna higiena" sheds themselves.

The municipality urges residents to be careful when moving around the listed locations while the operation lasts, and not to move or damage the rodent control materials that have been placed.

The rat control will solve the problem for this week. Emptying the bins on time would solve it permanently - but that does not get announced as an operation, because it is somebody's regular job.