August 21 (SeeNews) - The water utility companies of the Bulgarian cities of Pernik, Vidin and Silistra will benefit from EU grants of some 80 million euro in total for the construction of water and sewerage infrastructure, the environment ministry said on Wednesday.
Pernik's water utility has signed a 105 million levs contract with the environment ministry, with EU's operational programme Environment 2014-2020 to provide 78.6 million levs of the total investment in the project, the environment ministry said in a statement.
The project in Pernik envisages additional construction works and reconstruction of the sewerage network to lead waste waters to a renovated plant for their treatment.
The 23.6 million levs project in Vidin benefits from EU funding in the amount of 18 million levs. It envisages the reconstruction of the city's water supply system connecting a pumping station to Vidin. After successful completion of the project, nearly 40,000 inhabitants will have access to an improved water supply.
The project in Silistra is worth 79.4 million levs, with the EU providing 59.4 million levs of the total investment. The project envisages the reconstruction of approximately 100 km of water and sewerage network. The successful implementation of the project will reduce water losses in the region.
Works on the three projects should be completed within 49 months.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)