Russia. Vodokanal of St. Petersburg

The 15-year-maturity loan totalling EUR 25 million has been provided for financing the construction of a pumping station in a sewage collection tunnel as well as the partial upgrading of the Northern Wastewater Treatment Plant in St. Petersburg. The project will help close most of the remaining points where untreated wastewater effluent is now being directly discharged into the river Neva and the Baltic Sea.

NIB is a lead bank structuring loan financing from international financial institutions (the others are the EBRD and the EIB) for this environmental project implemented within the framework of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership.
Vodokanal of St. Petersburg is the municipality-owned water utility responsible for the water supply and wastewater treatment in the city and its suburbs.

Vodokanal’s strategic environmental goals include developing the sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants so that all wastewater is collected and treated by 2015, improving the reliability of the sewer systems and reducing energy and water consumption.

The investment will help significantly reduce the load of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged to the Gulf of Finland. The total phosphorus removal from wastewater will be approximately equivalent to the amount produced by 1,180,000 persons. The annual environmental load reductions to be achieved are: BOD load reduction 6,981 tonnes; total nitrogen load reduction 1,063 tonnes; and total phosphorus load reduction 861 tonnes. For comparison, the total annual Neva discharges are currently at these levels: nitrogen 43,000 tonnes and phosphorus 2,000 tonnes.