ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 18. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided a sovereign loan of up to 47.4 billion tenge (96.4 million euros) to the Kazakh state-owned Aqtobe Su-Energy Group JSC, a company responsible for centralized water supply, wastewater treatment, and district heating in the city, Trend reports.
The development of a sludge treatment plant with a biogas-fueled power production unit will also be financed by the loan, which is the EBRD's largest municipal project in Central Asia to date.
The bank states that the current treatment facility, which was put into service in 1984, will be replaced with the new one. It has the capacity to treat up to 100,000 m3 of contaminated water per day, which is sufficient to cover the demands of 600,000 Aktobe residents.
Furthermore, in compliance with Kazakhstani and EU requirements,
the project will include state-of-the-art wastewater treatment
technology to help enhance the quality of wastewater discharge. The
planned sludge treatment facility will remove odor-related issues
and contribute to a 23,000 metric tons CO2 equivalent annual
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It also contains a
waste-to-energy unit that produces “green energy” to partially
satisfy power consumption needs.
The wastewater treatment plant is anticipated to become a model
that other municipal water utilities in Kazakhstan can follow once
it is put into operation.
Meanwhile, the bank has invested about 9.8 billion euros in 317 projects in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan is the EBRD's largest and longest-running Central Asian banking business.