Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that he expects that the water in Gostivar will be technically safe by the end of this week, and potable by the end of next week. Thousands of citizens had health issues after the local authorities pumped untreated water in the city supply, and time is needed to clean and chlorinate the pipes.

If all is well, with the help of units from Skopje and additional experts, I expect that the water will be safe by the end of this week. Time is still needed to flush out the system so that the water in it is within normal quantities of chlorine, said Mickoski.

The Prime Minister said that the state in the municipality is overall poor, and that the incident with the water is a challenge for the entire society. “We as Government don’t have direct competences here but we will do all we can to make the system function as soon as possible”, Mickoski added.