MILS NEWS 96-08-13

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From: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>

CONTENTS

[01] INTENSIFICATION OF FRENCH-MACEDONIAN RELATIONS NOTIFIED

[02] BRITISH EMBASSY BEGAN TO ISSUE VISAS FOR MEDICAL NEEDS

[03] RESOLUTION AGAINST INJUSTICES FROM DIVIDING OF MACEDONIA

[04] GREEK DRAFT-MEMO ON POLICY WITH NEIGHBOURS

[05] REDUCED VALUE OF SHARES OF SKOPJE CITY SHOPPING CENTRE

[06] SATELLITE RECORDING OF MACEDONIAN AREA STARTED

[07] OPPOSITE INFORMATION ABOUT RECONSTRUCTION OF SKOPJE AIRPORT

[08] RE-VACCINATION OF CATTLE IN MACEDONIA IS REACHING ITS END

[09] BOGDANOVIC: DIALOGUE WITHOUT MEDIATORS

[10] 'TETOVO UNIVERSITY' THANKED TO ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT

MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT ON ECOLOGY IN MACEDONIA

[11] "Water That Brings Sickness" - Introduction

MILS NEWS

[01] INTENSIFICATION OF FRENCH-MACEDONIAN RELATIONS NOTIFIED

[02] BRITISH EMBASSY BEGAN TO ISSUE VISAS FOR MEDICAL NEEDS

According to A-1 Television, visas regime for other Macedonian citizens will continue to be carried out by British Embassies in Sofia and Belgrade.

[03] RESOLUTION AGAINST INJUSTICES FROM DIVIDING OF MACEDONIA

[04] GREEK DRAFT-MEMO ON POLICY WITH NEIGHBOURS

The seriousness of the approach is supported by the ambitions stated regarding 'FYROM'. Macedonian Radio reported that the Memorandum read that Greece should intensify its efforts to develop the economic, trade and cultural relations with the northern neighbour, despite the problems and unsolved issues. Those efforts are expected to create a basis to face the essential issues.

Greek-Macedonian relations had been established strictly within the framework of the Interim Accord, but there is a new factor - the emphasized necessity to look for a compromise about the name of Macedonia.

[05] REDUCED VALUE OF SHARES OF SKOPJE CITY SHOPPING CENTRE

The Secretariat of Information also announced that the Government had passed the Draft Law on Issuing and Trading with Securities. The Law determines the conditions for the work of mediating brokers companies, as well as working and keeping the securities.

Law on Housing was also adopted and it regulates the construction and maintaining of housing fund in the new free market economy conditions. It determines the way and conditions for renting houses and flats, sets rights and obligations both of the owners and tenants, as well as the maintaining of buildings. The Government decided to supplement the decree about representing of foreigners in Macedonia in the field of external trade.

Following his own request, the Government released from duty the General Manager of 'PTT Makedonija' Aleksandar Geshtakovski, respecting the decision of the Parliament that the position of a general manager is incompatible with the position of an MP. Previous deputy General Manager Risto Kostovski was, therefore, appointed a new General Manager.

[06] SATELLITE RECORDING OF MACEDONIAN AREA STARTED

Dimitar Dzonov, Director of Macedonian Geodetic Administration, put the net into operation at 1553m height above sea level, 26km away from Skopje. Media reported Dzonov's statement who said the recording would establish a united and free communication with all Europe. EUREF-MAK 96 net contains seven stationary points, and another 18 points have been defined by a sub-net structure. 35 observational system of $7 million have been engaged in the realisation of the project. The two airports in Macedonia will also be included in the observational activities. About 150 experts have been involved in the project, and the bearer is the Frankfurt Institute of Applied Geodesy and Macedonian Ministry of Town Planning, Public Works and Ecology.

[07] OPPOSITE INFORMATION ABOUT RECONSTRUCTION OF SKOPJE AIRPORT

On the other hand, A-1 Television reported that the start of the reconstruction had been postponed for several days, because, as alleged, the authorities had realized that the plan had been too old and inadequate, and the Airport building insecure. According to A-1 TV, the decision was made after suggestions made by British experts.

[08] RE-VACCINATION OF CATTLE IN MACEDONIA IS REACHING ITS END

[09] BOGDANOVIC: DIALOGUE WITHOUT MEDIATORS

[10] 'TETOVO UNIVERSITY' THANKED TO ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT

'The obligations of Albanian Government and Foreign Ministry set in the Resolution are concrete moves towards officialization of the University in Tetovo and righteous solving of Albanian issue in Macedonia. The Resolution is also a serious objection to the government of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which, refusing any responsibility, denies all elementary rights of Albanians in Macedonia,' read the letter of 'Tetovo university' sent to Albanian Parliament President.

MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT ON ECOLOGY IN MACEDONIA

[11] "Water That Brings Sickness" - Introduction

"Water that Brings Sickness," Part 1.

Many people in Macedonia lack clean drinking water, especially in villages. This is the first part of a four- part series devoted to the problem.

Ilcho Alagyozovski, a sturdy-looking boy of 14, fell sick last month. He lost his appetite. He developed a fever and diarrhea. His skin turned yellow. A doctor in his village diagnosed influenza, but when Ilcho didn't get better, his parents took him to a polyclinic in the nearest town. There, a blood test revealed that the boy had infectious hepatitis, or jaundice, a sickness commonly associated with contaminated drinking water. "If I had clean drinking water I would never have gotten sick," Ilcho complained recently. "Now I have to stay home and miss school and try not to think about the illness." After two weeks at home, his face still glowed yellow. He said he played his synthesizer to fight boredom. His mother gave him medicine and tea to fight the sickness. "It will pass," Marika Alagyozovska said. "But the problem with the water will stay, and along with it the possibility of a new epidemic." The Alagyozovskis live in Rusinovo, a village near Berovo in eastern Macedonia, but complaints like theirs can be heard in many parts of country. In Zelinkovo, a small village on the River Vardar, flooding in January caused an epidemic of hepatitis. In Arichinovo, a large village at the foot of the Skopska Crna Gora, children are forbidden to drink water at the local school.

(Many still do.) These are just a few of the many places in Macedonia that lack safe drinking water.

"The problem of drinking water is very serious in village settlements," said Dr. Pavle Filijanski, the head of drinking water quality at Republic's Department of Health Protection. "It's a problem which in Macedonia is going to drag on for a long time for the reason that its solution requires money that the Macedonian government doesn't have."

Unclean drinking water is not the only water problem in Macedonia. Many places have too little water. But according to the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP), a government report that gives an overview of environmental problems in the country, rural Macedonia is "at the bottom of Europe" in the quality of drinking water. Most cities have both sewerage and modern water supplies. Most villages do not. According to NEAP, 35 percent of the people in Macedonia drink water that does not come from a public water supply. Even villagers with a public water supply cannot always trust it. Often, NEAP says, village water supplies are poorly maintained and badly operated.

Children suffer the most from the problem. The most common illnesses from polluted water are hepatitis, or jaundice; diarrhea; dysentery; and rarely, typhoid.

"These kind of diseases in village areas are becoming 'hydro-epidemics,' depending on the conditions," said Dr. Dushko Panev, director of the epidemiological and microbiology section of the Department of Health Protection. Panev said he did not think the unclean drinking water was a major health problem at present. He said he worried mainly about large epidemic, and Macedonia has not seen a large epidemic since 1988, when 600 people in Shtip got sick from a bacteria named Shigela. But even without a major epidemic, many people in Macedonia worry about their water.

"I boil the water and that's why my kids are healthy," said a woman in Arachinovo. "I don't know about the other mothers. The water is very unclean and we have to be very careful, for the sake of our children."

Most people in villages get their water from private wells or from local water systems that lack filters and equipment to chlorinate the water properly. They also lack sewer systems. That means that water from the surface, contaminated by waste from people and animals, can easily seep into wells or into pipelines that bring drinking water into houses. Doctors sometimes recommend that people boil their water to ward off sickness, but many people don't follow the warnings.

Most people in Zelenikovo get their drinking water from a village water system. Unfortunately, the water comes from a well just 150 meters from the River Vardar. As it flows by Zelenikovo, the Vardar is carrying the waste of 600,000 people from Skopje. In the first week of January, high temperatures melted snow in the mountains. The river rose, flooding the well in Zelenikovo. Over the next month, dozens of people came to the village clinic complaining of diarrhea and other symptoms.

"The situation became very difficult," said Dobrka Traykovka, a clerk at food shop in the center of the village. "The water was muddy, it had an unusual smell, and it was impossible to use it even for washing, not to mention drinking." Now, even when the water is low, many people in Zelenikovo are afraid to drink the water in their houses.

Rusinovo, Ilcho Alagyozovski's village, lies far from the capital in the wooded hills close to Bulgaria. In contrast to many parts of the country, there's plenty of water here, tumbling fresh and clean out of the hills.

But in Rusinovo, the village water system is old and badly maintained, and animal and human waste can easily dirty the water. This has led to small outbreaks of hepatitis in 1992,1993 and 1994.

Like these Rusinovo and Zelenikovo, many villages have public water supplies that work badly. Other villages have no public water supply. Arachinovo is one of the biggest villages in Macedonia. It has 10,000 inhabitants and 700 houses, and it is still growing. The village has neither a village-wide water system nor sewerage, and no plans to build either. Officials in Skopje have told the villagers that Arachinovo is too high for the Skopje water system to reach. The only public water supply in Arachinovo now is a small one that serves only the school and the local clinic. It is contaminated by bacteria. Most people drink water from the shallow wells next to their homes, but they worry that the water is unsafe. Hepatitis and rare cases of typhoid have been seen in the village. Those with enough money dig deeper wells; others boil their water.

Many do nothing.

The National Environmental Action Plan, which the government has not yet adopted, says that Macedonia needs better monitoring of water in rural areas. Local water supplies need to be run more professionally. Some villages in Macedonia have found other, simpler solutions. Near Skopje, villagers in Rakotinci and Dorbi Dol recently helped pay to connect themselves to the city's water supply. The people of Zelenikovo plan to connect themselves later this year. But elsewhere, villagers have little hope of any improvement soon.

"The village is threatened by epidemics," said Quani Murtezani, 45, a villager in Arachinovo. "Is it necessary for these epidemics to reach a large scale, and only then something concrete to be done about the water?"

(to be continued)

mils news 13 August 1996

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