Shtip without drinking water since 14:00 after filter station shut down over extreme turbidity

The city of Shtip has been without drinking water since 14:00 after the local filter station was disconnected from the Zletovica hydro-system pipeline because water arriving from the Knezevo dam became heavily turbid, the director of Public Enterprise Isar Shtip, Aleksandar Arsovski, said at an emergency press briefing.

Arsovski warned that the storm that hit the Probishtip area overnight caused a sudden surge in turbidity in the raw supply, forcing operators to halt treatment to protect the plant and ensure public safety.

What operators say and current limits

"The reason for the extremely high turbidity of the drinking water is last night’s storm that hit the Probishtip region, and the Zletovica hydro-system is having difficulties in operating and supplying raw water to all municipalities that use it," Arsovski said.

"We are able to treat turbid water with parameters of around 50 NTU, and at the moment we are receiving turbid water of over 400 NTU. The teams of Zletovica and of Public Enterprise Isar are working in a coordinated manner to overcome this problem with the water supply, and we ask you, the citizens, for understanding and patience until this problem caused by the natural disaster is overcome," he added.

When asked when normal supply will resume, Arsovski said it is difficult to give a precise time: plant staff are prioritizing both delivery of chemically and bacteriologically safe drinking water to residents and protection of the filter station’s automated treatment processes. Teams from the hydro-system and the utility continue to monitor turbidity levels and adjust operations as conditions permit.

Authorities urged residents to follow any further instructions from the utility and to conserve available water until the treatment plant can safely restart processing raw water from the Zletovica system.

Photo: press material from the event