Gostivar waives August water and waste bills for residents

Gostivar municipal council decided to cancel residents' payments for drinking water and waste collection for August after a recent drinking-water ban and declared epidemic.

Council limited the exemption to a single month for budgetary reasons, council president said.

The Council of the Municipality of Gostivar voted at its session today to relieve residents from paying the municipal charges for both drinking water and communal waste collection for the month of August. The measure covers the billing period for August only.

The move follows a public-health incident in which drinking water in Gostivar was declared unsafe between 17 July and 14 August and an epidemic was declared on 19 July. The declared epidemic lasted until 21 August and the city was placed under a 30-day crisis status during that period.

Valdet Dzaferi, president of the Council of the Municipality of Gostivar, said the council had considered a longer exemption but limited the relief to a single month because of municipal budget constraints. "We thought it should be two months or three, but the idea is that it can be realised, executed," he said.

Local utility billing in Gostivar consists of two separate charges: fees for drinking water and fees for waste collection. Some households are billed using water meters, while others pay flat amounts for drinking-water consumption. For collection fees, the amount is set according to the floor area of the dwelling and the yard for those living in houses.

In July, police discovered pumps that had been used to introduce additional quantities of water from unsuitable sources into the Gostivar water-supply network. Three managers from the public enterprise "Komunalec" have been suspected in connection with that discovery and were taken into custody.

Report: Aleksandar Samardjiev

Photo: press material from the event