Employees of the public utility Vodovod used pipes and pumps to move water straight from the river into the main reservoir. That is not a technical error. That is a decision someone took, someone carried out and someone watched being carried out - while an entire town drank from that tap.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski confirmed it publicly. "We had irresponsible conduct by employees at the Vodovod public utility who were directly diverting water from the river into the main reservoir. The prosecution is acting and individuals have already been secured and questioned," he said, adding that he expects the investigation to widen and that responsibility has been localised.

The sentence that set off the political storm

Then came the second sentence: "I believe that for the first time in many years citizens will be using water that is fully bacteriologically safe."

For the first time in many years. The opposition seized on it immediately. SDSM responded that with that statement the prime minister effectively admitted the water in Gostivar had been unsafe the whole time the current government was in charge - and they are asking who signed the documents declaring the water technically safe for bathing, documents that, they claim, still have not been produced.

VMRO-DPMNE fired back with the same logic, only pointed backwards. Spokesman Manasievski presented microbiological analyses from earlier years at a press conference - from November 2020, March and February 2021, then findings from July 2022 and August 2023 - showing elevated coliform and aerobic mesophilic bacteria in samples taken by the local utility. Their point was aimed at Venko Filipče: he stayed quiet while he was health minister and was receiving those reports, and now he criticises.

What both sides say without meaning to

Put the two statements side by side and you get something neither side wanted to say out loud: analyses showing unsafe water exist going back to 2020, across the terms of different governments, and nobody broke the chain. One side shouts "you stayed silent," the other shouts "you stayed silent." Both confirm the reports existed. Neither explains why a report showing bacteria in drinking water does not automatically mean something has to happen.

That is the real scandal. Not that the water got contaminated, but that the system has held documents about contaminated water for years, and those documents triggered nothing. A report that produces no consequence is just paper.

The hyperchlorination and what came after it

The solution was hyperchlorination, carried out by specialists from the Skopje water utility, with daily sampling for analysis. But Mickoski himself admitted a new bacterium appeared after the hyperchlorination. Minister Klekovski promises the water will be safe to drink by the end of the week.

"I ask for patience because we are taking this process seriously. Soon, perhaps even today, citizens will receive water for drinking and cooking that meets bacteriological standards," the prime minister said.

The people of Gostivar have been patient for a long time already. The problem is that patience is not a public health strategy, and "perhaps even today" is not a deadline.

Mickoski said something broader too: institutions have reported numerous cases of unsafe drinking water in several populated places. So Gostivar is not an isolated case - that is the single point on which government and opposition agree. The question left standing is who answers when the investigation ends: only the handful of employees who switched on the pump, or also those who spent years receiving the reports and filing them in a drawer?