A public hearing last Friday in Mykolaiv approved a €27 million investment project to upgrade its communally-owned water/wastewater enterprise, Mykolaiv Vodokanal, making a step on the way to secure a state guarantee for a €15.5 million European Investment Bank loan.
The public hearing, attended by representatives from political parties, local authorities, and public utility enterprises, as well as individual citizens, was a mandatory move for such a project, as prescribed by the Cabinet of Ministers, Vodokanal Deputy Director for Economy Mykola Petrov told the LED Monitor on Monday.
He said the next steps will be to obtain conclusions from three Ministries – Construction, Economy, and Finance – and apply to the Cabinet for approval. “As a city with population below 800,000, Mykolaiv needs a state guaranty for the loan,” he explained.
According to the Proposals for the Mykolaiv Water and Wastewater System Development Project, the European Commission (EC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) supported the project. The document declares the project’s goal as to “ensure the European level of environmental safety, achieve full compliance with the national norms of waste treatment and discharge into water bodies, and upgrade the system of potable water treatment and delivery to consumers to the European standards.”
The total cost of the project, developed with assistance from the EC DABLAS Task Force, is €27.29 million, according to the document. Vodokanal will cover part of the expenses with €7.85 million of its own money. The rest, which may only materialize in case of the state guarantee, will be funded through €15.54 million borrowed from EIB, a €3.12 million EC cofinancing, and a €0.78 million EC technical assistance grant.
Mr. Petrov said that, in case of the Cabinet’s positive decision on the guarantee, the funds may be made available as soon as the second half of 2007, and then implementation will start.
It is expected that the project will be complete in 2012.
According to the EC web-site, the “DABLAS Task Force was set up in November 2001 with the aim to provide a platform for co-operation for the protection of water and water-related ecosystems in the Danube and Black Sea Region.”
The web site of the EIB describes the task of the “European Union's financing institution” as “to contribute towards the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member Countries.” Outside the EU, the bank “implements the financial components of agreements concluded under European development aid and cooperation policies,” the web site also reads.
Mykolaiv Economic Development Strategic Plan, worked out with assistance from the USAID Local Economic Development project in October 2006 and approved by the City Rada on Jan. 31, 2007, addresses communal infrastructure as one of the plan’s three critical issues. Goals to be attained under the communal infrastructure issue include creation of a modern and efficient public utilities system to ensure comfortable and safe residence, and raising funds for communal infrastructure development.
Source:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/enlarg/dablas/index_en.htm
http://www.eib.europa.eu/about/