. Water makes up about 2% of the territory of Macedonia, or square kilometers. There are about 35 rivers and 53 natural and artificial lakes. In terms of quantity of water resources, Macedonia belongs to the areas that have sufficient water resources. However, their distribution is very uneven. Rivers belong to the 6 river basins: Vardar River km2, Black Drim River 3.350km2, Strumica river km2, Dojran Lake 120km2,129km2 Lebnichka river and the river Morava Binachka 44km2.

The flow of water from one river basin to another is very important for the environment. Suchflow exists from the confluence of river basin Radika River Vardar (through hydro- electricplant Mavrovo) and Bregalnica river basin at the confluence of river Strumica (the water in the reservoir Mantovo). In future it is planned and other flows, such as the confluence of the River Vardar River Fever, from the confluence of the river Pcinja Ovce Pole etc..

Basin - so part of the territory, where water from atmospheric precipitation, from underwatersources and sources flowing together soedinuvat sea. In Macedonia, these basins are:Aegean basin, the basin of the Black Sea basin and the Adriatic Sea. These basins belong to a small part of the territory of neighboring countries (10%). Aegean basin covers 87% ofthe waters of Macedonia.

Вкупните водни ресурси на Република Македонија се проценети на 6,37 милијарди м3 во една нормална година и 4,80 милијарди м3 во сува година. Од нив 80% се пренесуваат во реката Вардар. Годишниот потенцијал на ресурси по жител е околу м3, која е на ниско страна, но е повеќе од потенцијалот, на пример на Германија и голем број на други европски земји (европскиот просек е приближно 1,900 м3/по жител).

Despite being a landlocked country, Macedonia has three large tectonic lakes (Ohrid, Prespa and Dojran), three artificial lakes and 50 wetlands. The highest tectonic lakes is thelake, covering an area of 357 square kilometers and located within the Drin basin. This lakeis more than 2 million years and is home to many unique species. All lakes are the boundaries and are shared with neighboring countries. There are nine spa resorts inMacedonia: Banishte, Banja Bansko Istibanja, Katlanovo, Kezovica, Koso vrasti, BathKocani, Kumanovo and Spa Negorci.

Ohrid Lake Lake, monument of nature. The lake is located in the southwestern part of Macedonia, at an altitude of 695 meters. It covers an area of ​​ km2, of which belong to the Republic of Macedonia. Lake was formed in the Tertiary period, two to three million years.The greatest depth is 289 meters, which lake is the deepest lake in the Balkans. In the lake they live more than 200 endemic species of organisms, and 70 percent of plants and animals in the lake are endemic character. Some of them are virtually living fossils that remain unchanged from the Tertiary period to the present, such as sponge, relict species of snails (70 species) old about 30 million years ago and whose relatives can now be found only in Lake Baikal in Russia and endemic worms. Relict fauna in the lake is widely known in the world and includes letnica (Salmo letnica Karaman) and endemic belvica (Salmothymus ohridanus), and endemic krkushka (Gobio ohridanus), crvenoperkata (Rutilus rubilio ohridanus), skobal (Chondrostoma ohridanum) and small carp (Paraphoxinus minutus). Ohrid Lake is included in many textbooks of zoology the unsolved mystery of its eel: it comes into the lake from the Sargasso Sea, a thousand miles and spent about 10 years ago in the depths of the lake while to mature sexually. Then, guided by instinct unexplained, autumn begins his journey to his birthplace. There it spawns and dies, and her descendants are returning to the lake. In 1979, the lake was declared a world cultural heritage protected by UNESCO as an outstanding, and in 1980 was designated as the Ohrid natural, cultural and historical area.

LAKE PRESPA Lake Prespa, a monument of nature. Prespa Lake is situated in the southwestern part of Macedonia, the triangle with Greece and Albania. The lake covers an area of 274 km2, of which belong to Macedonia. It is situated at an altitude of 853 m and maximum depthis 54 meters. From a total of 13 fish species in the lake, six are endemic. Since 1995, Prespa Lake in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.

Lake Dojran Lake Dojran, monument of nature. Lake Dojran is the smallest tectonic lake in Macedoniaand covers an area of ​​ only 43.1 km2. The western part of the lake (27.3 km2) belongs to theRepublic of Macedonia and eastern Greece. It is a shallow lake - the greatest depth of tenfeet - located at an altitude of 148 meters. Dojran Lake is a remnant of the former PaeonianSea. Fauna in the lake include invertebrates (protozoa, or unicellular organisms, sponges, worms, molluscs, arthropods and insects) and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birdsand mammals). In the lake are registered twelve endemic species. Dojran Lake is known for the traditional fishing using cormorants that make fish bait called mandri made ​​ of reeds.

As far as water consumption, Macedonia is in third place in Europe. Before us, thecountries that consume water najneracionalno Cyprus and Bulgaria, followed by Italy, Spainand Malta with the worst index of water consumption. Each year European consumes 5300cubic meters of water, enough to fill two Olympic pools. For comparison, Skopje spendstwo to three times more water than other world capitals. The capital is a champion in the loss of water by 57 percent. In Vienna, the loss is 12 percent, London 19, Paris 20, Rome25, Stockholm 21, Belgrade 20, Zagreb 23, Ljubljana 31, Podgorica, 20, Sophia 27,Athens 23, Zurich, Ham burg 10 and 4 percent. It is estimated that 28 percent of water losses in Skopje due to technical or physical losses, and the other 29 percent are commercial losses.