Novi Pazar Water Ban: What's Allowed, What's Not
The Novi Pazar city council has banned garden watering, pool filling and car washing. The ban on water use beyond basic needs takes effect immediately, enforced by inspectors and communal police.
Can you fill a pool in your yard in Novi Pazar today? No. On August 12, the Novi Pazar City Council banned non essential use of water from the municipal supply, citing an ongoing drought and a significant drop in river levels. The ban on water use beyond basic needs takes effect immediately, enforced by inspectors and communal police.
The goal of the decision, according to the local administration, is orderly and continuous water supply for residents.
What exactly can you no longer do?
The list is short and specific. It is now forbidden to:
- water gardens, yards, lawns and green areas
- wash streets, sidewalks, courtyards, terraces and facades
- fill or top up private swimming pools
- wash motor vehicles and machinery, except at licensed car washes
- allow any uncontrolled or unnecessary water flow from the supply network
Penalties apply for anyone who ignores the order. The city administration’s message is simple:
“We call on citizens to help preserve stable water supply through responsible and rational water use, and to use water strictly for basic living and hygiene needs,” the local administration said.
In practice, water is for drinking, cooking, bathing and laundry. Everything else waits for rain.
Western Serbia has been under these rules for a week
Novi Pazar isn’t the first. Since August 8, consumption restrictions have been in force in five towns supplied by the Rzav system: Cacak, Arilje, Pozega, Lucani and Gornji Milanovac. The Rzav public utility company cut supply to all users as early as August 4, because of a very low water level at the temporary intake at Sevelj.
The numbers show just how tight it is. Cacak is currently receiving 321 liters per second from the regional system, which is 53.48 percent of available volume, confirmed Zoran Pantovic, director of the Cacak Water Utility (JKP Vodovod Cacak). Arilje is getting around 46 liters per second, and municipal president and Emergency Situations Staff commander Predrag Maslar says that doesn’t cover basic needs, since water there also goes toward irrigating raspberry and blackberry fields.
In Gornji Milanovac, consumers are split into two groups, each without water for 12 hours a day: the first group is without water until 6 p.m., the second from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. We covered that schedule earlier, in a piece on which group you fall into.
In villages around Arilje, the regime is even stricter. In Bogojevici, Latvica, Stupcevici and Tresnjevica, water runs only from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 8 to 10 p.m. In Virovo, Lopas, Donja Kravarica, Grdovici and Vrane, it’s cut off from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The villages of Mirosaljci and Dragojevac rely solely on stationed water tankers.
Three factories shut down on their own
The number that best shows the scale of the problem has nothing to do with households. Over the weekend, Swisslion-Takovo, Metalac and Kansai Helios Serbia voluntarily cut back or halted production to help stabilize the system. The Gornji Milanovac municipal administration publicly thanked them for it.
In Cacak, the city council banned watering parks, gardens, yards, farmland and orchards with water from the municipal supply, along with washing streets and vehicles. The measure stays in place until the Rzav system stabilizes. Enforcement on the ground is carried out by municipal utility companies together with communal inspectors and communal police, with fines issued under city ordinances on water supply and sewage.
Why is this happening again this summer?
Because the system already ran dry once, for an entirely different reason. In late May, a break on the main pipeline near Arilje caused a complete water supply outage across the region, and Cacak declared a state of emergency at the time. Three months later, the same towns are back on restricted supply, this time because of drought.
Our advice for anyone in Novi Pazar or western Serbia: fill a few bottles and containers in the evening, while pressure in the network still holds, and run washing machines and dishwashers outside peak hours. It costs nothing, and the difference is noticeable once the water pressure drops.
