The EU Cohesion Fund and the EBRD are continuing their joint efforts to further modernise and upgrade water and wastewater services in Romania.
The EBRD is lending RON 30 million (€6.6 million) to S.C. APA PROD S.A., a regional company supplying water and wastewater services in six towns of Hunedoara county: Brad, Calan, Deva, Hateg, Hunedoara and Simeria.
The loan will co-finance the company’s RON 599.3 million (€132.7 million) regional investment programme to extend and upgrade water supply and wastewater facilities and networks under EU Cohesion Fund financing for Romania.
More specifically, the investments will increase access to water and wastewater services in the area, and improve the quality of those services, with over 180,000 people in six towns benefiting from the upgrade, in line with EU water sector legislation.
Jean-Patrick Marquet, EBRD Director for Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure, said: “We are pleased that the EBRD financing will make a difference for almost 200,000 people in Hunedoara, bringing them cleaner water and better wastewater services and removing health hazards associated with low-quality drinking water and poor sanitation. Our financing will also help reduce water losses and will make the water company more efficient.”
This EBRD loan is the 22nd investment under the Bank’s Romania EU Cohesion Funds Water Co-Financing Framework, launched in 2010. The facility was originally approved in November 2010, with a volume of €200 million, and further increased by €130 million in September 2012, following strong local demand. To date, the EBRD has mobilised approximately €2 billion of EU funding in Romania’s water and wastewater facilities.
The Bank is the largest institutional investor in Romania. Since the start of its operations in the country, the EBRD has invested approximately €6.7 billion across 360 projects in the country. The Bank has further mobilised over €14 billion for these ventures from other sources of financing.