TASHKENT

The U.K company Metito Utilities Limited has won an international tender for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Uzbekistan’s eastern Namangan city on the basis of a public-private partnership.

Metito Utilities Limited won the tender proposing the lowest price for availability payment, an annual payment of $9 million, less than another competitor, Almar Water Solutions BV from the Netherlands has proposed, Uzbekistan’s Finance Ministry said.

The cost of the construction wastewater treatment plant in Namangan city is $90 million with the project term of 25 years, of which the first two years are the construction period.

The project provides for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 100,000 square metres per day and the construction of a wastewater network with a length of 7.5 kilometres in a city of nearly 1.5 million.

The project was prepared with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) jointly with Uzbekistan’s Public-Private Partnership Development Agency, Ministry of Housing and Communal Services, and water supply company.

In June, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Uzbekistan’s government signed two loan agreements – a $20 million loan for an urban sustainability project in Samarkand city and a $70 million funding for a water supply improvement project in the Namangan region.

EBRD Green Cities, set up in 2016, helps each member city tailor solutions to its environmental needs with a unique combination of measures designed to move towards a lower-carbon and more liveable future. Membership of the programme will help Uzbekistan reach its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, the EBRD said, adding that globally, cities account for three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions and represent a prime opportunity to tackle climate change.

On joining the sustainability programme, cities undertake a trigger project with EBRD finance – in Samarkand’s case, this is expected to be an investment in electric buses – and also draft a Green City Action Plan, setting out further actions to improve the local environment.

A $70 million loan will be directed at improving the water supply of the Chust, Pap and Namangan districts, as well as the sewage system of the Chust and Mingbulak districts of the Namangan region, the ministry said.

Through the implementation of these projects, more than 170,000 people living in the Chust, Namangan and Pap districts of the Namangan region will have constant access to clean drinking water. The investment will also make it possible to connect about 115,000 new users to water supply networks. Thanks to the new infrastructure, water losses will be reduced by 0.6 million cubic meters per year.