Today, in a single day, several thousand families in Skopje will be without water or electricity. Not because of a fault, not because of a breakdown - but because of "planned technical interventions." At multiple locations across the city, in different neighbourhoods, in different time slots. The public enterprise "Vodovod i Kanalizacija" and EVN Distribucija are running parallel activities - the standard playbook of disregard in Skopje's neighbourhoods.

Trubarevo - without water from 10 am. Vlae and "Franc Preshern" street - from 08:30. The streets around "Ivan Kozarov" (including parts of "Georgi Dimitrov," "Vera Jocic," "Bozhidar Adzija," "Kiro Krstevski," "Mishko Mihajlovski," "Bote Bocevski," "Dimo Hadzi Dimov") - from 09:00. Part of Gjorche Petrov - without electricity from 09:00 to 14:00.

All of it on the same day. All of it with the standard advice from the public utilities: "citizens are advised to organise their day accordingly and to secure water reserves." Which means that responsibility for keeping a household running during the "technical interventions" - is dumped onto the citizens. They plan, they secure alternatives, they wait until someone finishes.

The question is simple: why have Skopje's infrastructure utilities for decades failed to run parallel works with backup pipes and alternative lines? In cities with developed infrastructure, water-main reconstructions happen without total shutdowns - because parallel networks exist. Here, every "intervention" means a cut - because the system was built linearly, with no redundancy.

That is a reality that does not change, which is why citizens have learnt that every few months a day will come when some part of the city has no electricity or water. It has become part of the urban rhythm. It should not be normal - but it is.