Sweden will donate 100 million Swedish crowns - about 11 million euros - to help build a sewage treatment plant in St. Petersburg, Swedish Consul General May Andersson said at the meeting with the Governor Valentina Matviyenko.The money will come in the form of a grant.

We can't manage sewage treatment plant construction using our own budget, so we are happy to cooperate with the Swedes," Matviyenko said at the meeting. The on-going construction project worth 174 million euros is funded by city water supply monopoly Vodokanal, the governments of Finland and Sweden, loans from foreign banks and private investments.

Officials say the plant, located in the city's Southwest, will be put into operation in the summer of 2005. It is expected to reduce the release of untreated sewage into the city water bodies by 330,000 tons per day, improving the environmental situation in the Gulf of Finland. Construction of the plant began in 1987 but came to a halt due to lack of financing after less than half the work had been completed in 1995.

Including the plant project, Sweden has allocated a total of roughly 22 million euros to St. Petersburg's technological and environmental projects over the past two years.

News source: www.sptimes.ru
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