Public relations officers of municipal services often have little to work with, but the teams from Bitola and Veles really scraped the bottom of the barrel in the past few days, and social media users in Macedonia took notice.

Bitola was first to go with a press release announcing its new rainwater drain, which the town hall put in place on the Srem street. This prompted a flood of ironic congratulatory messages over the social media.

Not to be outdone, the Veles public utility company proudly informed the citizens that the manhole cover on a drain in the Kiro Kucuk street, which was stolen, is now replaced with a new, or more likely by the looks of it – a used cover. Citizens will no longer have to be careful to avoid the open drain, and some were quick to snap pictures with this latest municipal achievement and post them online.