Water Supply and Sanitation in Serbian Towns – Program III / IV (wastewater)

Donor: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Partners: Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure

Project period: Since 2013

Challenges

  • Wastewater is discharged untreated or insufficiently treated.
  • Sewage collection systems are sometimes inadequate, non-functional and require adjustments to centralised wastewater treatment.
  • Existing wastewater treatment plants have not been developed in line with the quality of treatment required by EU directives.
  • Disposed faecal and sewage sludge is not sufficiently treated.
  • The tariffs do not cover the costs and do not allow water supply companies (WSC) to maintain, modernise or extend their infrastructure.

Approach

The aim is to ensure reliable and safe sanitation and treatment in accordance with EU standards at cost-covering and socially acceptable tariffs and to improve profitability and management capacities of WSCs.

The programme is carried out in two phases:

  • During the first phase the technical and design documents are prepared and the municipalities and their WSCs have to meet certain efficiency and performance criteria in order to qualify for the second phase (performance-oriented approach).
  • The second phase involves basic investments in wastewater collection and treatment, in particular in the construction of wastewater treatment plants and rehabilitation and extension of the sewerage network.
environment

Results

  • The cities of Vranje and Kruševac and their WSCs have qualified for the second phase.
  • WSCs have introduced cost-covering prices, including a minimum budget of EUR 30per house connection for maintenance.
  • WSCs have increased their fee collection efficiency to over 90%.
  • The WSCs are able to collect and treat the wastewater of more than 150,000 citizens in an environmentally sound manner aligned with the EU standards (Krusevac: 90,000 PE wastewater treatment plant with solar sludge drying and 63 km of sewerage network; Vranje: 70,000 PE wastewater treatment plant and 22 km of sewerage network etc.).
  • Project planning and implementation capacities have been improved in line with international standards.
  • Contribution to EU accession and implementation of EU standards in the wastewater sector.

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