Gornji Milanovac Water Rationing: 12 Hours a Day
Water arrives in shifts, nine villages have none after a pipeline burst, and empty bottles piled up outside the municipal building. Here is what the rationing means and how to plan around it.
How much water reaches the taps in Gornji Milanovac today? Twelve hours a day, not a minute more. Water rationing began two days ago, consumers were split into two groups, and as of Wednesday nine villages have been left with no water at all.
The first group is without water from 6am to 6pm. The second is without water from 6pm to 6am the next day. When we first wrote about which group residents fall into, the outage schedule was the whole story. Overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, the main pipeline burst, and the story moved past that.
Which group you’re in and when to fill up
The schedule is simple, but it’s worth writing down once and sticking to:
- Group one is without water from 6am to 6pm, so its members fill their reserves in the evening and overnight
- Group two is without water from 6pm to 6am, so its members collect water during the day
- In the parts of the municipality affected by rationing, mobile and stationary tankers with drinking water are planned
- Nine villages have been cut off from the system entirely since the pipeline burst, and the schedule offers them no help
Practical advice, for any household with small children or elderly residents: keep containers for drinking and cooking water separate from the ones used for rinsing and washing, and fill them before your group’s twelve hour outage starts. When the water comes back on, fill the drinking water first.
Why there isn’t enough water
The office of the municipal president says the rationing comes down to low water levels on the Rzav river, made worse by residents using water carelessly. The regional “Rzav” utility warns that conditions at the water intake are poor, which further complicates stable supply.
Five municipalities draw water from the Rzav: Gornji Milanovac, Cacak, Arilje, Lucani and Pozega. Matija Bratuljevic of the public utility “Rzav” says local water systems are now receiving about 600 liters per second, down from a monthly average of 607 liters. The gap is small. The demand is not.
“Today we are delivering 600 liters per second to our users, meaning the local water systems. Last month that was nearly enough. But our colleagues are dealing with serious problems from water being used for the wrong purposes. Farmland is being watered, there’s irrigation, pools are being filled, so my appeal, and the appeal of the public utility Rzav, is for people to use water rationally and cut back on non essential use, so everyone has enough water to drink,” said Bratuljevic.
On days when hydrological conditions are favorable, he adds, supply runs between 600 and 650 liters per second. Over the past weekend, large factories in Gornji Milanovac halted production to ease consumption.
In Cacak, using tap water to irrigate parks, gardens, yards and farmland, and to wash streets and vehicles, has been banned since August 10. The measures stay in place until the system stabilizes.
Empty bottles outside the municipal building
On Thursday evening, August 13, several hundred residents gathered in the town center. Under the slogan “We want water and accountability,” they left empty plastic bottles outside the municipal building and demanded the resignations of municipal president Dejan Kovacevic and public utility director Ivan Lazic.
The gathering was called by a self organized group of students from Gornji Milanovac, through social media. Their message was short:
“If you don’t know how to solve the water supply problem our municipality faces every year, then resign,” the students said.
The opposition and the students also claim that whatever water does reach the taps is no longer fit even for technical use. A new gathering has been called for today, Friday, August 14, starting at 7am outside the public utility building.
What to do today
If you live in Gornji Milanovac, plan your day around your outage slot, not the other way around. Do the laundry, shower and wash dishes while the water has pressure, not in the last minute before the cutoff. If you’re in one of the nine villages without water, follow the tanker schedule and prepare lidded jerry cans, not open buckets.
One more thing, for the neighbors watering their gardens from the tap: right now, that exact use of water is standing between your faucet and a full reservoir.
