The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union’s financing institution, has granted a EUR 45 million loan for the upgrading and extension of the sewerage infrastructure in the coastal towns of Sidon and Tyre in southern Lebanon.
The funds earmarked for financing this high-priority environmental project, which is due to be operating at the end of 2007, will be deployed by the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), acting for and on behalf of the Republic of Lebanon.
The loan contract was signed by Mr Philippe de Fontaine Vive, Vice-President of the EIB, responsible in particular for the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), an EU-mandated scheme implemented by the EIB in the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs).
This loan, granted from the FEMIP window, will serve to finance investment in water supply (mainly leak detection programmes), waste water collection and treatment (upgrading and extension of the wastewater collection systems and construction of treatment plants) and stormwater drainage systems (construction of pipes and conduits).
The project will thereby help to improve the quality of life of over 300,000 inhabitants in these two historic towns and accordingly forms an integral part of the cultural heritage programme financed by the World Bank and Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) in Sour. The Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) will co-finance this project alongside the EIB and the CDR. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
