EBRD helps Kazakhstan’s city of Semey improve solid waste management

• EBRD loan of KZT 3.83 billion to modernise solid waste management system in Semey
• KZT 2.99 billion contribution from the akimats to remediate old landfill, modernise waste collection and sorting
• First project in Kazakhstan under EBRD Green Cities Programme.

The city of Semey, one of Kazakhstan’s major municipalities and home to more than 300,000 people, will be able to modernise its solid waste management system thanks to financing provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

An EBRD loan of KZT 3.83 billion (€7.50 million) to the municipal company Keleshek will help Semey, the hometown of Kazakhstan’s national poet Abai Qunanbaiuly and formerly known as Semipalatinsk, renew its solid waste management system. The funds will be used to construct an EU standards compliant landfill and a biological solid waste treatment facility.

The regional and local governments (akimats) of the East Kazakhstan Oblast and Semey will contribute KZT 2.99 billion (€5.86 million) to the total cost of the project. These resources will be used to build a mechanical solid waste treatment facility and auxiliary infrastructure, rehabilitate waste collection points across the city and to remediate the existing landfill.

This is the Bank’s first project under the EBRD Green Cities Programme in Kazakhstan. It will assist Semey in the development of a Green City Action Plan (GCAP), the Programme’s key tool helping cities articulate their sustainable development vision and strategic objectives, as well as actions and investments to address priority environmental issues.

The EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said today at the virtual meeting with the East Kazakhstan Oblast Akim Danial Akhmetov: “It is very important that the EBRD is able to support projects like Semey solid waste, which, as part of the EBRD Green Cities Programme, will have multiple benefits for the municipality and its citizens including CO2 savings and improvements in ublic health.”

Once operational, the new solid waste facilities will help reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by almost 12,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

The project is supported by Technical Co-operation grants provided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, the Austrian Fund for Municipal Infrastructure.

The EBRD Green Cities programme, set up in 2016, is now supporting 45 cities across the Bank’s Countries of Operation with the aim of reaching 100 by 2024. It has to date secured more than €2.5 billion of the Bank’s own resources as well as concessional and technical cooperation funding provided by donors.

To date, the EBRD has invested over €8.13 billion in the economy of Kazakhstan through 280 projects. The support of small businesses is particularly important and in-line with the EBRD’s country strategy for Kazakhstan.