"No one is annoyed anymore," says one Užičan woman, "but everyone properly dries the water bottles, protects them from dust and puts them away in the pantry." They know they will need it soon. In short, everyone resigned themselves to a sad fate."
"We don't know what's worse," explains the elderly Užičanin, "these worms in the water or the chemistry they use to purify our water." If you ask me, I'm more afraid of chemistry than worms. We manage, now we drink water from the water supply, but when we can we get other water, and what should we do... They said that the water is now correct, how do I know... I don't trust anyone anymore, nor can I buy water anymore, it's expensive. There are seven of us in the house, three generations. We older people always, even before this disaster, brought drinking water from the Great Park, because we wanted the healthiest water possible. As if we were bewitched by healthy water, that's how we were taught from childhood...
And now, I no longer trust any fountain or source. These young people laugh at us, drink water from the tap and don't think much. In the neighborhood, no one talks about water anymore, other things come up, children go to school, weddings, winter holidays, we need to find money for all that... We are so used to this situation, let me tell you, we are numb, that water is not even a topic anymore not even among us in the house."
WITH A BOTTLE TO GUESTS: After the first shock from December last year when Užice, known as the city with the freshest and cleanest water, was "wrapped in black", not only because of smog, but because of the knowledge that a huge amount of algae that release toxins was found in the water they drank , cyanobacteria, the residents of Užice were still saying that "nothing will ever be the same". They survived shock, panic, incidents, canisters, cisterns, New Year's and celebrations without water, lost trust in the government and all those responsible due to the silence of an environmental disaster that could cost them their health. They waited for someone to take responsibility for once, watched the government remain silent, learned that the problem is not new and that who knows how long the "water poisoning" has been going on, heard how the most important thing is to solve the current situation "we will talk about the culprits later". The "Empty Cups Protest" was also organized, it was the turn of chemical purification of water with chlorine, and the number of cyanobacteria only increased. The Užice water supply then closed the valves towards the algae-poisoned reservoir Vrutci and connected with Sušački vreli, which belong to the municipality of Čajetina, in whose district is the Zlatibor mountain. And then there was a little relief.
Don't lie down, only until summer and July 19. From the Institute for Public Health of Serbia "Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut" that day, the news arrived: "The situation is similar to the winter, the water supply was turned off due to the presence of cyanobacteria, which is undesirable and can endanger people's health." In addition to the algae, a large number of roundworms were found." Thus, in the middle of the summer heat, the inhabitants of Užice were again told to use only water from cisterns or bottled water for cooking and drinking, and the waterworks and the city government allegedly need to take the necessary measures and perhaps introduce even stronger purification methods. so that the algae can be destroyed.
On the streets again, the army with tanks ("we didn't know that the army from Kruševac was the closest to us", are somewhat surprised Užice residents), queues, resentment, but they say it is somehow less intense than Zimus. It was as if they were more occupied with another thing than the daily problem of getting water: come on, worms, but where did the algae come from, they wondered in amazement. And then came another devastating news from the "Batut" Institute: that there is a suspicion that a valve in the supply system has loosened, which is why water from the Vrutci reservoir, which has not been used since February due to the presence of algae, got into the water factory. Now who will convince the already rightly skeptical citizens of Užice that the valve has loosened? Rumors go much further and spread among the people that "someone" deliberately unscrewed the valve from the poisoned lake in order to increase the pressure and flow of water, which is much more necessary in the summer period. A strong feeling that someone is deliberately poisoning them because of political points and, as they like to say, "their asses in the armchairs", now dominates the conversation with the people of Užice.
After 37 summer days of painstaking supply of water from cisterns, here and now, when they said that the water is perfectly safe for drinking and cooking, and that its correctness will be checked every four days, in many houses there are still bottles of some other water, just not the ones from the waterworks. In the kitchen, one for drinks, one for the dishes, to be cleaned with "safe water" after washing, one for cooking, one for coffee, one for brushing teeth in the bathroom...
"Ever since the New Year, in the periods when the use of water from the water supply system was prohibited, I have not visited guests without my own water," says a serious, young woman from Užičan. "The hardest thing for me is asking someone for water, I feel like I'm asking them for dry gold." And I drink a lot of water, what can I do, I'm thirsty every half hour. And then I have to go somewhere, they serve me sweets and drink half a liter of water... I don't know, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I always take out my bottle and offer my water. There are some situations when you feel that it is really difficult for people to offer you water, maybe they don't even have it for themselves, but they would rather give you a beer than a glass of water."
"NORMAL" LIFE: In Užice, when it comes to water, everything seems to be working normally at the moment. Water is not the number one topic, and yet... "Write that Užice now has proper water, only nobody drinks it", is one of the messages. Those who, even after the lifting of the summer state of emergency, will not even hear about water from the water supply system, are getting in various ways. Everyone according to their capabilities, age, health and wallet. Some people still buy water, they say, in the beginning we looked at which of the bottled waters was of better quality, and now we just give the cheapest one, some go by car to a "verified source", put water balloons in the car and drive home. "There is also a young man, he fills the car with water balloons and drives them around the houses." It is the hardest, of course, for the elderly. And to the sick. And those with small children. To everyone who monitors their own or other people's health with special caution, to everyone who moves with difficulty and slowly, either because of the baptismal certificate or for other reasons, single people, those without guaranteed help from those closest to them.
When the elderly say that the fear crept into their lives that one day, when they announce again that the water is not drinkable, they won't be able to go down to the cistern or they won't have the strength to bring home as much water as they need, then the whole problem gets even deeper and more emotional shades. From the eternal old man's fear that maybe the time will come when they will not have "who" to bring them a glass of water, it has changed to the fear that they will not have "what" to bring. When the people of Užice want to underline the shame of the situation they are in, they exclaim indignantly: "And all this in the 21st century!"
And what affects them the most is the uncertainty of the situation. Definitive solutions are only speculated about, there is still no clarity of the problem nor clarity of its cause. There are no official explanations as to where the algae in Lake Vrutci came from. The emergence of worms from the new water supply is also only speculated. One of the rumors says that the reason is the lack of sewage in the vicinity of Sušacki vreli. The Zlatibor region is a livestock region, meat processing is the main production, and there is no sewage system, the residents of Užice claim. They explain how all the waste from the slaughterhouses is disposed of in septic tanks, and then goes into the underground water, which swells up and mixes with the rest of the water during heavy rains like this year. "Let them build a sewage system in the whole area, so there will be no worms", is just one of the many solutions proposed by the people of Užice. Locals say what they hear, or what various experts say, so they know that algae and other problems with water also appear in much more developed countries, in locations that supply water to much larger territories, with the difference that, they particularly emphasize, the government there does not keep silent, talk about it openly, warn people in time and solve the problem quickly. For now, the only thing they are completely sure of is that the water in Uzice will never be the same again and that rehabilitation and purification could take years.
"As citizens, we are completely powerless," concludes a woman from Užičan. "We live in Orwellian times: what the media says is the truth." When they say the water is not right, we don't drink, when they say it's right, we drink... And that's how we live reconciled with everything that happens to us. Lethargy is the word that best describes us."
