EBRD to invest in water infrastructure in Ganja, Azerbaijan
4 Feb 2025 by The Water Diplomat
On January 22nd, at the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, Azerbaijan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed a loan agreement for €35 million, for the benefit of the Azerbaijan State Water Resources Agency. The funds will go towards an upgrade of water management systems in Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, Ganja.
The main aims of the project are to facilitate the rehabilitation of the city’s water supply and sewage networks, resulting in reduced water losses, the achievement of full coverage for drinking water supply, and improvements in public health. Through improvements in stormwater drainage, the project is expected to enhance the city’s climate resilience. There is currently no wastewater treatment facility in Ganja, and it is envisaged that a new treatment plant will be financed as a follow up stage. The project is the first phase of a broader investment programme financed by the EBRD with an estimated value of € 410 million which will enable a more fundamental rehabilitation of the water and wastewater sector in the city.
Beyond investments in infrastructure, the project will include capacity building on environmental and social risk management towards the introduction of an environmental and social management system and the seconding of staff from the state water agency to help put these measures in place in Ganja.
Upgrading the water infrastructure is one of the components of the EBRD’s € 5 billion Green Cities Programme (GCP) which was initiated in the early 1990’s and targets cities from central Europe to Central Asia, the Western Balkans and the southern and eastern Mediterranean region. The GCP aims to support the transition towards a more sustainable future for cities and their residents, as well as providing support for cities experiencing a lack of investment in infrastructure, demographic changes, poor air quality and historical legacies of high energy and carbon intensity.
The GCP rests on three pillars, i.e. Green City Action Plans (GCAPs), sustainable infrastructure investment and capacity building. GCAPs entail an assessment of existing environmental challenges and the subsequent development of a mix of policies and investments in sustainable infrastructure. Sustainable infrastructure refers to green infrastructure which has an impact on water and wastewater, transport, energy supply and consumption, solid waste while advancing climate adaptation and resilience at the city level. The final pillar is capacity building, whereby technical support is provided to municipal staff and urban stakeholders in order to ensure the effective implementation of the envisaged projects.
Ganja joined the Green Cities Programme in 2020, and the current upgrade of the water infrastructure is the third project which has been developed in the context of this programme.