EBRD and AFD to lend 150 million euros to improve regional landfills in Serbia
BELGRADE (Serbia), December 20 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the French development agency AFD plan to provide an investment of 150 million euros ($ 170 million) to support Serbia’s efforts to improve its waste management infrastructure, says the EBRD.
The investment, for which the EBRD and AFD each grant a sovereign loan of 75 million euros to Serbia, will finance the construction or extension of seven regional landfills and a multiregional primary sorting system, said Friday the bank in a statement.
In the first phase of the project, the new waste management systems will serve 29 Serbian municipalities, with a total of over 900,000 inhabitants, covering around 13% of the Serbian population, the EBRD said.
“We will implement the largest environmental projects in four local governments next year, namely four regional centers and recycling centers for solid waste management. Almost 30 cities and municipalities will gravitate towards these centers, and they will change the quality of life of their citizens, “noted Minister of Environmental Protection Irena Vujovic.
The investment will help reduce the negative impacts associated with the production and management of waste by reducing around 178,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and increasing the amount of recycled waste by over 19,000 tonnes per year, a said the EBRD.
In addition to providing funding, the EBRD and AFD will support the Ministry of Environmental Protection and regional solid waste management companies in the development of waste management plans. These plans will define the waste management activities in each solid waste region financed by the investment, with the objectives of increasing the collection, source sorting and recycling of waste.
The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Serbia and has so far invested more than € 6.9 billion in 296 projects in the country. The bank focuses on private sector development, improving public services and the overall transition to a green economy.
($ = 0.88305 euro)