Makedonska Kamenica lists elder care, youth activities and stray-animal control as top priorities

Residents of the small mining municipality of Makedonska Kamenica list several immediate priorities for the local government one year after it took office: construction of a home for the elderly, more activities and incentives to keep young people in town, and a solution for the problem of stray animals. The municipality’s economy and a large share of the budget rely on the Sasa mine.

The Sasa mine employs more than 700 people from Makedonska Kamenica and is projected to continue extracting ore until 2034. Local officials have increasingly spoken about the need for an economic transition for the municipality once mining activity declines.

Many residents say they are worried about what will happen if the mine stops operating after 2034 and argue that young people should be helped to turn their business ideas into realities.

Calls for a transition strategy and new opportunities

“Makedonska Kamenica is fairly built up, apart from the mine there is nothing else, and we don't have one or two garment factories with a normal small number of employees. Quite a lot of people, perhaps especially women, travel every day to Amphenol in Kochani, there they look for a livelihood. Should the municipality do something, like make some strategy for economic transition, knowing that here in 2034 there are some projects of the mine for ore extraction? Well, see maybe the very end is also suitable for tourism in some way,” says Blagoj Stamboliski.

Older residents describe the municipality as a calm place to live, with maintained streets, a pedestrian path and the riverbed of the Kamenicka river. “It pleases me that Kamenica is a leading town in Macedonia by number of inhabitants per greenery; they say somewhere, I read that in Macedonia there is per inhabitant the most greenery,” said one resident.

At the same time, others note the steady outflow of youth. “Young people leave, as everywhere, and from Kamenica they leave, they seek a better life. And for us the old people here it is very nice. It is nice, the young seek a better life. Has anything changed in one year with the new local government? – Very well. It functions, I have nothing to tell you. I think the mayor is very good, she receives, she listens to you, communicates with everyone, does not humiliate anyone,” said a resident.

The municipality manages an annual budget of €6 million, of which more than €3 million comes from the concession paid by the Sasa mine. According to the latest census, Makedonska Kamenica counts 6,439 inhabitants, and the population has declined over the past two decades due to migration, particularly to Italy and Slovenia.

Local discussion now centres on concrete projects—an elder care home, youth programmes and addressing stray animals—and on drafting a strategy for economic diversification in case mining activity ends after 2034.

Photo: press material from the event