EU funds for the first set of the project Discharge and treatment of municipal wastewater in the upper Sava basin and in the area of the Kranjsko and Sorško polje
Ljubljana, 18 July 2012 – Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MEDT), as the Managing Authority for the EU structural funds and the Cohesion Fund, issued a decision granting EU funds for the first set of the project Discharge and treatment of municipal wastewater in the upper Sava basin and in the area of the Kranjsko and Sorško polje, which is worth 21.1 million Euros. The project is part of the Operational Programme for Development of the Environmental and Transport Infrastructure for the period 2007–2013 and will be co-financed from the Cohesion Fund in the amount of over 13 million Euros.
Four municipalities of the upper Gorenjska region – Radovljica, Žirovnica, Jesenice and Bohinj – joined forces to implement the project which is foreseen to be concluded by 2015. With the help of the EU funds the mentioned municipalities will construct the adequate infrastructure for the discharge and treatment of municipal wastewater.
In the framework of the project, 29.5 kilometres of sewerage system and a central wastewater treatment plant (WTP) in Bohinjska Bistrica with the capacity of 9,350 population units (PU) will be built. The existing central wastewater treatment plant in Jesenice, which provides treatment of wastewater for the greater part of the municipality of Jesenice and a part of the municipality of Kranjska Gora and operates with the capacity of 30,000 PU, will be renovated and upgraded. The investment includes the construction of a biological level, the reconstruction of rakes and compliance of the sand trap with new demands.
Besides improving the municipal infrastructure and the efficiency of wastewater treatment the project will also contribute to decreasing emissions into waters from municipal pollution sources, increasing the protection level of the Sava river and the lake Bohinjsko jezero, protection of the ground and groundwater as well as the enablement of the sewerage system in the upper Sava basin in accordance with environmental demands. Besides the mentioned environmental objectives the construction of the adequate infrastructure will establish the basic conditions for development. The project will also contribute to the improvement of living conditions of the inhabitants and their health. The beneficiary municipalities have already, in the most part, acquired all the needed agreements and rights to dispose with the land.
The overall project of is divided into two individual sets (each of them represents a concluded whole in a technical, organisational, management, geographic and financial sense). The second set of the project will focus on the central part of the Gorenjska region, namely on the construction of the system for the discharge and treatment of municipal wastewater in the area of the central wastewater treatment plant Kranj. The second set will also bring the upgrade and reconstruction of the central waste water treatment plant Kranj and the construction of the sewerage system in the municipalities of Naklo, Šenčur and Kranj.
The funds in the amount of 1.57 billion Euros in the framework of the Operational Programme of Environmental and Transport Infrastructure Development for the period 2007-2013 are primarily meant for the modernisation or construction of new infrastructure in the field of environment and transport. The smaller share of these funds is also meant for the projects in the field of sustainable energy use.
