Village of Slankamenački Vinogradi in the municipality of Inđija, the smallest village in the area, residents receive drinking water once a week. They supply themselves by pouring drinking water into canisters and plastic containers from the only tap in the village where the water is of good quality. They are not connected to the municipal water supply network, even though it passes just a few hundred meters away.

On Sundays at 11 am, the residents of Slankamenački Vinogradi always know where they will be. In front of the school building, in line for water. The village with about 250 inhabitants does not have a water supply network. Almost every house has a well, but that water is not for drinking or cooking.

„It is difficult to predict how much water is actually needed on a weekly basis. It is difficult, I should be cooking lunch now, taking care of other things, my children, but I am taking the time, waiting here. Very often, I have to buy additional water because sometimes I cannot make it in time for water filling,“ says Biljana Đermacki, a resident of Slankamenački Vinogradi.

Those who do not make it mostly wait until next week because the dilapidated toilet from where they obtain drinking water on other days is locked.

„That used to be a toilet that served for the Cultural Artistic Society, for the school, for the needs of the local office,“ says Borislav Čmelik, one of the residents.

Why are the doors locked?

When Borislav cannot make it, his neighbor unlocks the door, and the question is why are they even locked? Borislav says it has to be that way.

„Because all sorts of things have happened, the door was broken, and the lock has already been replaced, which means that there is someone who does not want it to be like that, that drinking water is available every day, someone would cause damage,“ says Čmelik.

Until 2017, they did not even have this opportunity. Then, thanks to a donation from the Slovak Embassy, as most residents are Slovaks, a well was drilled 130 meters deep. Their hopes of getting a water supply network have been nurtured and shattered several times.

„In 2008, there was a sign posted on the door to make a list of interested residents for water connection, 94 people signed it themselves, in 2010 this merchant Miro said let’s make a list and we made a list, and nothing,“ says one of the residents, Ljubinko Filipović.

Not even the letters they sent to the municipality and provincial government helped. Neither do they respond nor are they visited. Except for cyclists traveling the world who stop by the campsite.

„Last year, around 250 people already passed, and now surely around 350. We collect rainwater here, when there is no rain, then we call someone who has a well and brings us water by tank, and that is really expensive,“ says Aleksandra Cvetković, the owner of the Cycle camp.

What do they say in the municipality?

Not far from the village is a weekend settlement that is connected to the city water supply network. The municipality of Inđija brought and financed this network. However, the residents of Slankamenački Vinogradi will still have to wait for that.

The municipality says that after Čortanovci and Krčedin, Slankamenački Vinogradi are next.

„We do not have a specific date, we have to start next year with the project-technical documentation for that settlement, and I cannot tell you now, then and then it will be,“ says Marko Gašić, the mayor of the municipality of Inđija for Euronews Serbia.

Until then, the supply of drinking water, for which they collect money for annual analysis themselves, remains on Sundays at 11 am.