The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to provide a loan of €20 million (£15.5 million) to support the development of Kyrgyzstan’s water and solid waste infrastructure.

The project aims to address the most urgent needs in the municipal solid waste (MSW) and water sectors in the country, and the bank expects the financed improvements to benefit 850,000 people, or 15 per cent of the total population of the country.

The landlocked Central Asian country, officially named the Kyrgyz Republic, has partnered with the European Union (EU) since 1991, and this project is an example of cooperation between the EIB, the EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and is being supervised by the Delegation of the EU to the Kyrgyz Republic. The country currently recycles approximately 18 per cent of the municipal waste it generates.

Two solid waste schemes in Osh, the country’s second largest city with a population of over 255,000, and Jalal-Abad, a city of 90,000 close to the Uzbekistan border, comprise upgrades of the existing waste collection system and construction of new sanitary landfills respectively. Undertakings in the water sector are also taking place in Osh and across six other cities.

This is the second loan granted by the EIB to Kyrgyzstan. In 2015, the EU bank provided €70 million (£54 million) to finance the construction of a high voltage electricity power transmission line interconnecting the Kyrgyz Republic’s and Tajikistan electricity networks, increasing the reliability of the electricity systems and enabling the development of regional electricity trade in Central Asia.

The project also follows on from an EBRD project that began in April 2015 to improve the MSW management system in Bishkek. The Kyrgyz capital city had a MSW management system that EBRD described in 2015 as suffering from underinvestment and lacking any formal recycling functions. The EBRD added that the landfill site, which had been operating since 1979, lacked any artificial lining and leachate periodically overflowed into a nearby river basin.

Through the project, a new sanitary landfill will be constructed, alongside a new material recovery facility (MRF) and mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant for sorting recyclable waste. New infrastructure for the household and commercial collection of waste will also be provided through the project.

EIB Vice President Jan Vapaavuort said: “EIB funds will help increase the quality of life of the Kyrgyz Republic’s citizens and reduce public health risks by providing an adequate supply of drinking water and improving the disposal of solid waste and waste water.

“At the same time we are identifying with Kyrgyz authorities projects suitable for EIB financing that are relevant to further develop the country’s economy in line with EU and Kyrgyz Republic priorities.”

More information about waste management in the region can be found on the Isonomia blog (a version of which was published in Resource) and information about the new loan can be found at the EIB website.