PRISTINA (Kosovo), September 25 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Tuesday it is providing two separate sovereign loans worth a total of 38.5 million euro ($45.3 million) to finance wastewater network projects in two municipalities in Kosovo.
The loan will address critical wastewater treatment needs in the municipalities of Mitrovica and Gjilan with 18 million euro and 20.5 million euro, respectively, the EBRD said in a statement.
The projects will be co-financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The total cost amounts to 37.2 million euro for Mitrovica and 42 million euro for Gjilan.
The EBRD also said the financing will enable the regional water companies of both municipalities to rehabilitate, upgrade and extend their wastewater network, and build a new centralised wastewater treatment plant for each of the two regions in order to collect and treat the wastewater to the relevant EU environmental standards.
The implementation of the projects will result in significant environmental benefits to local freshwater resources by considerably reducing the volumes of raw wastewater, and its associated pollutant loads, that will be discharged straight into the river, the EBRD explained.
($ = 0.85053 euro)