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EBRD loan to improve sewers, waste-water treatment in Rybnik
More efficient waste-water collection, fewer public health hazards and less pollution in local rivers -- these are some of the benefits the inhabitants of Rybnik, in southern Poland, can expect from a €16.7 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the local water supply and sewerage company.
Przedsiebiorstwo Wodociagow i Kanalizacji (PWiK) will use the EBRD financing, which comes with a municipal guarantee from the city of Rybnik for half of the loan, to extend its sewer network by more than 600 km, connecting about one-third of the city's inhabitants to a new waste-water treatment plant. The loan will increase the company's sewer network coverage from 64 per cent to 96 per cent and will help to clean up the region's environment by removing direct effluent discharges into local rivers and by reducing the number of sceptic tanks in the region. This also marks the EBRD's first environmental loan in Upper Silesia, which is one of the most extensively industrialised and polluted regions of central Europe.
Thomas Maier, Director of Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure at the EBRD, said the Bank's loan will not only help PWiK substantially reduce the amount of untreated effluent entering the tributaries of the Odra River, and eventually the Baltic Sea, but it will also bring Rybnik's sewerage collection in line with EU environmental standards.
The project will also help PWiK introduce systems to improve its financial and operational performance, as well as help it develop in areas including tariff collection and customer service.
The European Union, through its Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) Programme has approved Rybnik's application for complementary grant financing of approximately €71 million to cofinance the project.
The project is one of a number of projects in Poland and central Europe co-financed by the EBRD and ISPA, and is the direct result of close cooperation among the EBRD, PWiK, the city of Rybnik, ISPA, the Ministry of Environment and the National Fund for Environmental Protection. With a population of 142,000, Rybnik is one of Upper Silesia's main cities and a mining and manufacturing centre. PWiK is a limited liability company, wholly owned by the city. It serves over 154,000 customers in Rybnik and surrounding municipalities.
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