OREANDA-NEWS. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a \$110 million loan to finance the Integral Sanitation Program of the Bay of Asuncion and the Metropolitan Area. The project will help improve living conditions for 71,100 households that are home to 300,000 people.

The program seeks to reduce the Bay of Asuncion and San Lorenzo Creek pollution and improve the sanitary and environmental situation of people living in the basins of urban creeks that empty into the Bay of Asuncion and the city of San Lorenzo.

“This program will not only help reduce the environmental problems of the city’s bodies of water and the sewerage systems’ deficiencies by increasing service efficacy and quality—it will also help boost the standards of living of Asuncion Metropolitan Area residents,” IDB project team leader Jorge Oyamada said.

The program’s objectives include tackling the environmental component of the Asuncion Coastal Development Program as well as that of the Metropolitan Area’s sanitary sewage and effluent treatment systems.

It will finance the rehabilitation of 52 km of main and secondary collectors of the Varadero and Bella Vista basins —which will improve service to some 48,000 households—, as well as construction of 4.8 km of networks and collectors, giving sewerage access to 1,500 homes, and of the Bella Vista and Varadero pre-treatment plants.

The program will also help enhance and improve the San Lorenzo sanitary service by rehabilitating 33.9 km of networks and collectors, providing better service to 4,300 households; building 99.3 km of networks and collectors that will connect 17,000 homes to the sewage system; and enhancing a waste water treatment plant.

It will also provide, among other things, technical assistance to boost the operating and managing abilities of Paraguay’s Empresa de Servicios Sanitarios (ESSAP), including updating the users registry, implementing a business reinforcement plan, training technical and operations officials, designing an integral management plan for the Bay of Asuncion, and monitoring the quality of waterways and their biota. The Ministry of Public Works and Communications will be in charge of the program’s execution.

The \$110 million loan includes \$39.2 million from the Bank’s ordinary capital for a 25-year term, with a 5.5 grace period and interest based on Libor; \$56.64 million from the ordinary capital’s Single Currency Facility for a 30-year term, 5.5 years of grace and a fixed interest rate; and \$14.16 million from the Fund for Special Operations for a 40-year term with a 40-year grace period and 0.25 percent annual interest rate.