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EBRD loan to improve sewage systems in Polish city
€15 million to Gliwice will help reduce pollution, and public health hazards
More efficient waste-water collection, fewer public health hazards and less pollution in local rivers - these are some of the benefits the inhabitants of Gliwice, a city in the Upper Silesia region in southern Poland, can expect from a €15 million loan from the EBRD to the city.
The EBRD loan will help the city extend its sewer networks by 84 km and its drainage lines by 64 km, increasing the number of local residents connected to the network from 72 per cent to 97 per cent. The loan will also help clean up the region's environment by removing direct effluent discharges into local rivers.
Thomas Maier, Director of Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure at the EBRD, said the loan will benefit the city's 210,000 inhabitants through an improved and extended waste-water collection service, and will also help the city of Gliwice comply with the EU's directive on urban waste management.
Part or all of the loan may be transferred to Przedsiebiorstwo Wodociagow i Kanalizacji (PWiK), a local water company owned by the city of Gliwice, when PWiK is determined to be an appropriate and creditworthy borrower. Mr Maier said this transfer could free up the city's resources, enabling it to finance other investments. PWiK serves over 240,000 customers in Gliwice and surrounding municipalities.
The European Union, through its Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) Programme, is providing the city with €35.2 million in grant funds to cofinance the project. The city of Gliwice will contribute €6.7 million to the project, and an additional €12.2 million may be made available from the Polish environmental funds. The Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs is providing €155,000 in grant funds to help improve the creditworthiness of PWiK.
The project is a direct result of close cooperation among the EBRD, the city of Gliwice, ISPA, the Ministry of Environment and the National Fund for Environmental Protection. This is the Bank's ninth municipal infrastructure project in Poland, of which five have been signed with ISPA funds, making the EBRD a leading co-financier of municipal infrastructure investments in Poland. Mr Maier said that, looking ahead, and building on the successful cooperation so far, the Bank is well positioned to continue its work with the EU on large infrastructure projects in Poland once the country joins the EU.
This is the EBRD's second environmental loan in Upper Silesia, one of the most extensively industrialised and polluted regions of central Europe. To date the Bank has invested over €190 million to municipal infrastructure investments in Poland.
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