Sludge Watch ==> Russia-St Petersburg sludge incinerator start up

[Maureen Reilly]

http://www.kauppalehti.fi/4/i/eng/releases/press_release.jsp?selected=other&oid=20071001/11934069163530&lang=EN


NIB: St. Petersburg sludge incinerator set in operations

Friday 26 October 2007 16:55 EET Kauppalehti Online

PRESS RELEASE           26.10.2007

Nordic Investment Bank (NIB)

St. Petersburg sludge incinerator set in operations

On 26 October, Russia's second largest city St. Petersburg
inaugurated the Sewage Sludge Incinerator at the Northern Wastewater
Treatment Plant. The construction of the incinerator was financed by
a number of international financial institutions, including the
Nordic Investment Bank.

The incinerator will help solve the problem of depositing wastewater
sludge to the city's landfill, as the amount of sludge exceeds the
landfill's capacity. The new incinerator will reduce the annual
250,000 cubic metres of sludge into 12,000 cubic metres of ash. The
output of the incineration can be recycled as construction material.
The incinerator will also decrease the environmental risks of
transporting wastewater sludge through residential areas. Both the
incinerator and the wastewater treatment plant are operated by the
municipal water utility company Vodokanal St. Petersburg.

"NIB is involved in financing this project because it has been
critical to find a sustainable solution for sludge treatment in St.
Petersburg. By financing environmental projects in St. Petersburg and
Northwest Russia, our Bank has an important mission to ensure a
better environment in the Baltic Sea region," says Johnny Åkerholm,
NIB's President and CEO.

The total amount of investments in the construction of the
incinerator stand at EUR 90 million. In addition to NIB's financing
totalling EUR 13 million, loans were provided by the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and
BNP Paribas. The project received grant financing from the Northern
Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP), the UK Department for
International Development and the Finnish Ministry of the
Environment.

The sludge incinerator is another step in a large-scale programme of
investments aiming to stop St. Petersburg's effluent discharged
untreated into the Neva River and the Baltic Sea. Earlier, NIB acted
as a lead bank for the financing of the construction of the city's
Southwest Waste Water Treatment Plant launched in September 2005.
Both projects have been implemented and funded under the NDEP
programme orchestrated by four leading multilateral financiers, the
European Commission and the Russian Federation to address the
pressing environmental problems in the Baltic Sea region, the Barents
region and Northwest Russia.

NIB is a multilateral financial institution owned by eight member
countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania,
Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in
and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit
rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor's
and Moody's.

For further information, please contact:
Ms Charlotta Tallqvist-Cederberg, Senior Manager, at +358 10 618 0228
or Mr Dimitrijs Alehins, Communications Specialist, at +358 10 618 0296