OREANDA-NEWS. December 05, 2007. A 500 million rouble loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to UfaVodocanal will significantly help decrease the level of untreated sewage discharged into two tributaries flowing into the Volga River and thus cut Caspian basin pollution levels, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The 13-year loan will finance the acquisition of sophisticated equipment to modernise municipal wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure in Ufa, a city of 1,1 million people. The city is the capital of the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan. At present about 15 percent of Ufa’s sewage is discharged without proper disinfection and treatment.

The EBRD loan will not only enable Ufa to buy ultraviolet technology to treat sewage before it is discharged, but also finance the purchase of methane tanks to catch biological gas which can be burnt off to produce heat for Vodocanal, thus combining environmental protection with energy efficiency.

The European Union and the governments of Japan and Finland have provided technical assistance grants totaling ?810,000 for various sub-projects key underpinning this EBRD loan, mainly in the areas of implementation and institutional development.

The project is at the core of the Bank’s municipal infrastructure programme in Russia and this represents the Bank’s second loan for the City of Ufa. In 2006, the EBRD provided a 360 million rouble 10-year loan to the municipal housing utility “UJH” to modernize its district heating system in order to cut what had been chronic heavy losses of energy, heat and water.

In connection with another project also aimed at reducing the flow of untreated sewage discharged into the Volga, the EBRD earlier this year made a 350 million rouble (equivalent of ?10 million) loan to Kazanvodocanal to rehabilitate the Tatar capital’s main wastewater treatment plant.