The Minister of Environment and Water Neno Dimov and the manager of "Water Supply and Sewerage" Ltd. - Smolyan Eng. Marian Nikolov signed a contract for the integrated water project of Smolyan agglomeration. This is the first project with a water utility beneficiary, financed under OP "Environment 2014-2020".
The activities include rehabilitation of the sewage treatment plant in Smolyan. Reconstructed water network with a total length of 14 km will be built. New construction and reconstruction of 19 km of sewerage network is planned. Successful implementation of the project will contribute to increasing the collected and treated load of pollution before discharging waste water into the water bodies and drastically reducing water losses in the water transmission network. Upon completion of the project, an additional 30,000 inhabitants will benefit from improved wastewater treatment. The number of the population with access to better water supply will increase by 26 000 inhabitants.
The total amount of the investment is BGN 91.3 million. The OPE 2014-2020 provides grants amounting to BGN 68.2 million. The implementation period is 48 months.
In the 2014-2020 programming period, the OPE funds water and sewerage projects by applying the regional approach: one separate water supply site - one WSS operator - one project. It is expected that the 14 water and sewerage operators will start submitting their project proposals.