OREANDA-NEWS. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has lent 350 million roubles (equivalent of ?10 million) to reduce the flow of untreated sewerage discharged into the Volga River by Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan and Russia’s seventh biggest city with a population of 1,1 million, reported the press-centre of EBRD.


The 10-year loan to Kazan Vodokanal, the city’s wholly-owned water and wastewater management utility, will finance the rehabilitation of Kazan’s main wastewater treatment plant. This project will significantly decrease the level of untreated sewerage being discharged and thus contribute to a long-term reduction of the pollution load of the Volga River and the Caspian Basin, said EBRD President Jean Lemierre at a signing ceremony in Kazan on the sidelines of the Bank’s 16th Annual General Meeting.


This is the EBRD’s first municipal loan to a Tatarstan borrower and we are very glad that Kazan joins a growing line of Russian cities taking advantage of the EBRD's Rouble financing, specially designed to free municipalities and other Russian entities with no access to export revenues, Mr. Lemierre added. The project will also help modernise Kazan’s municipal water supply and address the problem of water losses. The governments of The Netherlands, Canada and Finland, as well as the European Union, are contributing significant donor funds to finance various aspects of the project’s preparation and implementation.