AKIPRESS.COM - The EBRD and the government of Kazakhstan are continuing to support water and wastewater modernisation in the country with a new loan to upgrade the water supply in Petropavlovsk, a city of 200,000 people and a provincial capital of the region of northern Kazakhstan.

The loan of 2.2 billion tenge (€7 million equivalent) will enable the municipal water and wastewater company Kyzhylzhar Su to modernise the water and wastewater systems in the city to make them more energy efficient and reduce water losses, EBRD said in a release on Thursday.

To make the project affordable for Kyzhylzhar Su, the government of Kazakhstan is providing an investment grant of up to 1.5 billion tenge (€4.7 million equivalent) and the regional government, the oblast Akimat, is extending a 150 million tenge grant (€0.5 million equivalent).

The EBRD loan agreement was signed today by Zhenis Sultanov, the General Director of Kyzhylzhar Su, and Ekaterina Miroshnik, the EBRD’s Director for Infrastructure in Russia and Central Asia.

The project will be carried out under the umbrella of the Enhanced Partnership Arrangement between the EBRD and the government of Kazakhstan. Under that agreement, the government and the Bank are joining forces to modernise municipal and environmental infrastructure across the country.

Janet Heckman, EBRD Director for Kazakhstan, said: “The EBRD and the government of Kazakhstan support a range of public utilities, from district heating to transport, in over 10 regions but we believe water and wastewater modernisation, which directly benefit the lives of citizens, are of special importance.”

The EBRD’s work in the Kazakh water sector