OREANDA-NEWS. April 11, 2013. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is increasing the amount of financing for modernisation of the wastewater treatment facilities in the city of Shymkent, in southern Kazakhstan.

The new EUR 10.3 million loan will be added to an earlier financing of EUR13.6 million to Vodnye Resursy Marketing, a private water utility company in Shymkent.

Shymkent is a growing city of over 630,000 people. The new financing will pay for the extension of wastewater services to up to 3,500 new customers living in private houses, the vast majority of which are not currently connected to a wastewater network.

“This project further demonstrates the EBRD's commitment to regional development and improvement of the local environment,” said Janet Heckman, EBRD Director for Kazakhstan.

The Bank has a history of cooperation with Vodnye Resursy Marketing. The first deal with the water utility company, in 2009, financed the successful modernisation of the water supply network (Shymkent Vodokanal). The current project – wastewater modernisation – was launched in 2010; the EBRD loan, extended that year, financed the rehabilitation of the existing wastewater treatment plant and the construction of a new biogas plant (scheduled to be completed at the end of this year). Connecting the new 3,500 customers, financed by the new EBRD loan, will also ensure a more stable supply of wastewater to the future biogas plant.

Since the beginning of its operations in Kazakhstan, the EBRD has invested EUR 4.7 billion in various sectors of the Kazakh economy, mobilising additional investments in excess of EUR 7 billion.