Skopje residents wake up with a plan again - today there's no power and no water in several municipalities. EVN and the public water utility announce outages that for households mean seven hours without power in some areas and a water cut lasting „until the fault is repaired" in part of Centar municipality.

For power, EVN lists two locations. Šuto Orizari - between 8 AM and 3 PM - „Pelagonija", „Brsjačka Buna" and „Demir Hisarska" streets, plus house number 31 on „Indira Gandhi". Sopište municipality - between 9 AM and noon - parts of streets „4" and „8" in the village of Gorno Sonje. Technical work on the grid, according to the Skopje Crisis Management Centre.

For water, the case in Centar is the interesting one. A fault on a 300 millimetre diameter valve on „Nikola Karev" street - that's the technical term for something that should have been replaced 20 years ago. The cut affects several central points: „Nikola Karev" and „Mirče Acev" streets, parts of Prolet, the Health Centre, primary school „11 October" and the local kindergarten. Children and patients - in other words, the first to suffer.

The question citizens keep asking but never get answered is - why does the infrastructure always come with a same-day warning instead of one given months in advance? Why, when the water utility knows the state of the valves on the main streets, doesn't it schedule replacements on a plan, rather than waiting for the breakdown? That's a question about management, not about water. And to that question the utility doesn't reply with transparent planning documentation.

For the families with no power or water today, the standard advice is - stock up, be patient. But for people living on these streets, every time there's a cut, they no longer ask „why again?" It's everyday life. It's a city where infrastructure is defined by non-equivalent planning, and where the failure of a single valve blocks an entire city from functioning.