SDSM warns of illegal dump near Rashche spring that supplies Skopje

SDSM’s general secretary Aleksandar Sasa Dimitrijevic warned at a press conference that an illegal dump is forming in the protected Rashche watershed, endangering the spring that supplies Skopje and roughly 25 percent of the country’s population with drinking water.

“It is terrible what we see here on the ground. For this catastrophe, VMRO and Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski do not need a drone — this is the situation... a catastrophe! Total chaos,” Dimitrijevic said, describing the site as a rapidly growing wild dump inside the protection zone.

The party says the location is directly threatened and that the contamination risk is not only to drinking water but also to the agricultural produce of the surrounding area. According to SDSM, for more than a month over 50 settlements, including Gostivar, have faced unsafe and polluted drinking water.

Dimitrijevic challenged national and local authorities to explain who allowed waste to accumulate so close to a public water source and who guarantees that Skopje’s drinking water is currently safe. He asked: “Who allowed such a wild dump to be created near the spring that supplies a quarter of the country’s citizens? This is a direct threat to drinking water and to citizens’ health.”

At the press briefing he urged immediate institutional action to stop what he called an environmental “genocide” and to prevent a larger disaster, pressing officials to name those responsible and to ensure testing and remediation of the spring.

“Citizens have a right to clean and safe water,” the party said, adding that the situation shows a failure of municipal and national authorities and demanding urgent intervention to secure the Rashche source.

Photo: СДСМ