"The Great Wall of Ohrid": Construction Is in Full Swing on the Shore by Biljana's Springs, While Pecakov Waits for an Inspection Report to Say What It Is

A stone wall is rising on the lakeshore near Biljana's Springs and the former "Ajvan Beach" in Ohrid. Videos posted by the civic initiative Ohrid SOS and by residents in the Facebook group "Write About Ohrid" show construction machinery and digging right next to the water. Judging by the latest footage, the work is speeding up.

"The Great Wall of Ohrid", Ohrid SOS dubbed it, briefly and ironically. The association is unavoidable - the public immediately drew parallels with the infamous lakeside "parapet" once proposed by former prime minister Nikola Gruevski.

An inspection - and nothing more

Mayor Kiril Pecakov confirmed that an emergency inspection has been sent to the site. At a press briefing, however, he said nothing about who is building, what they are building, or whether any paperwork exists for the works. The answers, he says, will come once the municipality receives the inspection report and the actual situation is established.

That's an odd order of things. Construction work on the very shore of a UNESCO-protected lake doesn't happen unnoticed - the machinery doesn't fall from the sky. If the municipality doesn't know who is building on its shore, that's one problem. If it knows and isn't saying, that's another problem entirely.

Environmental activists have raised the alarm several times recently about the shoreline belt in the protected zone being grabbed, both by buildings and by vessels. Lake Ohrid has been under the scrutiny of local organisations and the international community for years precisely because of urban pressure on the shore. Will the inspection put an end to it, or will this be one more case that ends up as nothing more than an entry in a report?

The pool: 470 million denars and another "year and a half, two at most"

At the briefing, Pecakov also talked about the indoor swimming pool, another Ohrid project that has been stalled for years. The government has secured 470 million denars to resume and finish construction. The biggest problem, according to the mayor, is the plant room - the hot water supply and power consumption - and the tender documents were drawn up in 2014 and 2015, when prices were completely different.

The deadline? "From now it shouldn't be more than a year and a half, two at most," Pecakov said. The final deadline will only be known once the tender documents are opened.

The pool with paperwork from 2014 is still waiting today. The wall on the shore, meanwhile, is going up at full speed - without anyone from the municipality saying whose it is.