On the afternoon of 6 August 2016, a storm unlike anything the city remembers came down over Skopje. In 24 hours, 92.9 litres of water fell per square metre. In the first two hours there were more than 800 lightning strikes. The main meteorological station at Zajčev Rid recorded a record intensity for five-hour rainfall of 84.5 millimetres.

Twenty-two people lost their lives. In the areas of Singelić, Stajkovci, Smilkovci and Aračinovo. The youngest victim was a two-year-old child from Stajkovci. Most of those who died were caught in their homes or in cars on the Skopje ring road. Around a thousand people were evacuated during the night. The eighth of August was declared a day of mourning.

Ten years

The municipality of Gazi Baba is marking the tenth anniversary today. Mayor Boban Stefkovski said there are days that are never forgotten and that the memory of the victims will remain permanent. He expressed gratitude to the rescue services, the army, the interior ministry, the firefighters, the Red Cross, health workers and volunteers. An official commemoration will be held tomorrow.

In the same statement Stefkovski added a sentence more important than all the rest: institutions have a duty in prevention, infrastructure and safety, so that similar disasters are prevented in future.

That's the point at which every commemorative speech in this country ends, and the point at which the same silence begins every year. What specifically has been built in those catchment areas over ten years? Which channels have been cleared, which culverts are being widened, what is the state of the drainage infrastructure in Singelić and Stajkovci today, in August 2026?

Remembrance and work are not the same thing

The number 22 must not remain merely a date in the calendar. It's a measure of what happens when water of that intensity meets a city without prepared infrastructure. A commemoration honours the people. A cleared channel protects the next ones.

The people of Skopje who lived through that night aren't asking for new wreaths. They're asking for the assurance that if 90 litres fall again in a single day tomorrow, the ring road won't become a river.