A new plant for the treatment of wastewater is set to be built in the North Macedonian capital allowing most of Skopje’s 560,000 residents to have their wastewater treated for the first time.

Wastewater treatment is one of the most urgent areas highlighted by the city authorities and the EBRD under their Green Cities Action Plan.  Despite being a capital city, Skopje has no proper wastewater treatment in place with most of the raw sewage flowing into the river Vardar causing pollution and affecting people living downstream.

The new plant is expected to make significant improvements to water quality in the Vardar river, improve the habitats and ecosystems in the area and the well being of people in Macedonia and Greece.  The plant will treat water in 9 out of Skopje’s 10 municipalities and will be able to serve around 650,000 people.  This allows for the anticipated increase in the country’s population. 

The investment comes in the form of a combination of loans:  €58 million from the EBRD,  €68 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB)  with a €10 million grant from the EIB’s Economic Resilience Initiative.