Today parts of Skopje were once again left without water. Trubarevo - from 10:00 in the morning, due to works connecting a water line. And parts of Karpoš and Taftalidže - from 9:00, because of a serious failure on a main 300mm valve on „Ženevska" street.

The specific list of streets without water in Karpoš: „Ženevska", „Brisel" (Briselska), „Petar Draganov", „Njegoš" (Njegoševa), „Štokholmska", „Gavril Lesnovski", and the first stretch of „Partizanska". Additionally, part of „Sofijska" and the buildings along „Partizanski odredi" boulevard - from „United Nations" bridge to „Moskovska" street.

That's a significant chunk of the city. Not a „small specific area" as official statements tend to downplay it. Tens of thousands of residents in Karpoš and Taftalidže, plus all of Trubarevo - without water for one working day.

The water utility says crews are on site. Supply will be restored „immediately" after the repair. „Immediately" is a flexible term - maybe four hours, maybe eight, maybe by tomorrow. The citizen knows this. They accept it'll go as it goes.

The question nobody asks out loud is - why does this happen so often? Skopje has a water network decades old. Many sections still run on pipes from the 1960s and 1970s. Those pipes have a lifespan - and that lifespan ran out 15-20 years ago. Every burst, every failure, isn't a surprise - it's the logical outcome of infrastructure that was never upgraded.

How many more risks like this are buried under „Partizanski odredi" - a boulevard in the very heart of Skopje - over its ten-kilometre stretch? Nobody talks about it out loud. There are strategic documents inside the JP „Vodovod" utility - they don't get read out in the media.

Until then, residents of Karpoš will grab bottled water from the supermarket, or fill buckets early in the morning before the supply drops, or simply adjust. As always. That's the silent tax of an obsolete system nobody is willing to officially overhaul - because the investment would be enormous, and the political will isn't there.

By tomorrow, a new announcement about other streets. Guaranteed.