August 1 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Zagreb county said on Thursday it has launched works on an 883.8 million kuna ($132 million/120 million euro) regional water supply system project co-financed by European Union funds.
The EU is providing 483.9 million kuna from its cohesion funds towards the cost of the project, while a further 89.2 million kuna is coming from Croatia's state budget and the budget of state water management company Hrvatske Vode, the Zagreb county government said in a statement.
The remainder of the overall amount of 707.1 million kuna (the project's value without VAT) is provided by the county's water management company Vodoopskrba i Odvodnja Zagrebacke Zupanije, which is in charge of the job.
The project covers four cities and ten municipalities in the eastern part of Zagreb county. Works started on Wednesday in the town of Ivanic-Grad, some 25 km south-east of the capital Zagreb.
The county governor, Stjepan Kozic, said in the statement that plans on the project had been drafted 40 years ago but more serious preparations for its launch began in 2007 with the establishment of Vodoopskrba i Odvodnja Zagrebacke Zupanije.
"With the implementation of this project all households in the eastern part of the county will be able to connect to the public water supply system, while the current considerable losses in the system will disappear," he said.
(1 euro = 7.38309 kuna)