Skopje, 20 December 2024 (MIA) — No grocery store chains have inflated the prices of bottled water in Skopje ahead of the announced water outage, State Market Inspectorate head Vlatko Stojkovski told the press Friday.

Despite receiving complaints over the last two days that some stores had raised their prices somewhat, market inspectors did not discover any price hikes nor limited supplies of bottled water, Stojkovski said.

He was responding to a reporter's question if any retailers were gouging prices of bottled water given the high demand by Skopje citizens ahead of the disruption in the capital's water supply.

Stojkovski said the State Market Inspectorate had sent its teams to big supermarkets on Thursday and "there were no price changes there."

As for local convenience stores, he said, the inspectorate needed to receive reports of price gouging first before they could send inspectors to talk to storekeepers.

"Yes, we will get out there and investigate. But we did not see any bottled water price increases yesterday," he said.

Earlier this week, the Skopje public water utility company announced that the city's water would be turned off on Friday at 10 pm so that utility crews could make long-overdue repairs on the capital's water line system.

The repairs are expected to take anywhere between 15 and 24 hours.

Until the repairs are done, according to the announcement, residents of Skopje's Chair, Butel, Radishani, Vizbegovo, Bardovci, Zhelezara, Avtokomanda, Gjorche Petrov, Saraj, Shutka, Topansko Pole, Novoselski Pat, Dame Gruev, Kisela Jabuka, Stopanski Dvor, Volkovo and Orman will have tap water. Others will not.

According to the Public Health Institute in its recommendations to the general public ahead of the water outage, people should follow the local news and take note of further announcements by the water utility company. mr/