DUSHANBE, November 25, 2011, Asia-Plus — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is continuing to provide support to municipalities in Tajikistan which want to upgrade vital services such as waste collection and clean water.
According to the EBRD office in Dushanbe, Khujand, the administrative center of the northern Sughd province, will receive a loan from the EBRD with a sovereign guarantee as well as an investment grant from the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund, which will be used to upgrade the existing landfill, making it sanitary and prolong its life by at least 15 years.
Khujand is the second largest city in the country with 165,000 inhabitants. The state enterprise, Special Sanitary Cleaning Water Pool, the sole waste management company in the city, will be made independent and commercially viable, reporting directly to the city authorities. It will be renamed “Khizmatrasonii Naqliyoti Sanitari”.
Historically, solid waste collection services have been seriously under-priced in post-Soviet states. The EBRD-funded upgrade and commercialization program will allow the company to increase payment collection rates.
The EBRD strives to provide financing to Tajik municipalities at an affordable cost, usually mobilizing international donors and other sources of financing. In the case of the Khujand solid waste management project, the EBRD loan of US$ 2.5 million will be matched by an investment grant of US$ 2.5 million from the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund. Separately the Bank provides and funds technical cooperation associated with the project, to the value of US$ 1 million, funded by the European Union and the Bank’s Early Transition Countries fund, which among other things will look into possible future ways for private participation in the sector.
“Khujand was the first Tajik city where the EBRD started working with municipalities in 2004, with a very successful water project which was later replicated in many other cities. This new project with the solid waste management company will provide affordable financing and necessary restructuring to the city, helping both the company and the citizens of Khujand,” said Jean-Patrick Marquet, EBRD”s Director for Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure.
“This project is very important for Khujand as the financing provided by the bank will be invested for the improvement of solid waste management services in the city and this will lead to significant improvement of the environmental situation,” said Anvar Pulotov, General Director of the State Unitary Enterprise “Khizmatrasonii Naqliyoti Sanitari”, the current manager of the waste management company. “It also should be mentioned that support in institutional development will be provided to the enterprise that will help it to develop steadily in the future.”
The existing EBRD-financed projects in municipal infrastructure in Tajikistan concentrate on improving water supply and wastewater services, as well as improving solid waste management and public transport services.
Tajikistan became a shareholder of the EBRD in 1992. To date the Bank has invested over US$ 280 million in over 60 projects in the country.
