Skopje, 22 October 2025 (MIA) - Association of Local Self-Government Units (ZELS) President and Kisela Voda Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski said a meeting took place on Wednesday, at the initiative of Centar Mayor Goran Gerasimovski, bringing together mayors of all municipalities in the Skopje region, for the purpose of finding solutions due to the collapse of public waste management enterprise "Komunalna Higiena".

"Regretfully, Skopje has turned into a big landfill for a while. Although we intervened on several occasions in recent years, the municipalities were unable to do more because they lack the proper equipment or the jurisdiction to empty the bins," Gjorgjievski wrote in a Facebook post.

Gjorgjievski, who is leading after the first round in the elections for Skopje Mayor, said all mayors have tried to mitigate the chaos that has engulfed the city.

"Today, we are discussing not only about actions to be taken in the coming days, but how to permanently solve the problem with the hygiene in the capital. We will seek support from our counterparts across the country, so that we jointly contribute to clearing up this mess," says Gjorgjievski.

He called on the management of the Drisla landfill to open its gates for the trucks transporting waste that is collected from Skopje streets.

"Our citizens regularly pay their bills but don't get the service. As promised, we will clean Skopje in 72 hours after I take office, putting an end to this agony," says Gjorgjievski.

Prior to the meeting, Mayor Gerasimovski said an urgent solution must be found, since the problem has hindered normal life in the city.

"In Centar, there were no waste collection trucks over the past five days. We have been using our own vehicles, municipal cleaners have been working in double shifts to remove the waste from the streets. Unfortunately, this is not enough. We have no jurisdiction to empty the waste from the bins and don't have the proper machinery for this anyway. We are only removing the waste around the bins, which is not enough," said Gerasimovski.

He added that stray dogs are an additional problem, because they scatter the trash across the streets.

"I hope the public enterprise will wake up and send its trucks on the streets of Centar and Skopje in the coming days," noted Gerasimovski. 

Photo: Orce Gjorgjievski Facebook, Centar Municipality