Putting into use small hydro power plant "Belica 1" in Struga village Visni encircled Tuesday the project on construction of five small hydro plants in the Ohrid-Struga region by way of public-private partnership between inter-municipal public enterprise "Proaqua" and domestic investor, company "Feroinvest".

"Feroinvest" invested EUR 7,3 million in the 18-month-long construction of the five hydro plants (Belica 1, Belica 2, Ohrid 1, Ohrid 2 and Ohrid 3), with total installed capacity of 3mW. Moreover, two pipelines, 15km-long have been built for the plants' needs.

According to the agreement, "Proaqua" regulated property issues in the project and would receive 31 percent of the Ohrid plants' profit and 18 percent of the Struga plants' profit in the next 40 years.

"These are the first plants constructed in line with the public-private partnership principle, following a transparent international procedure and supported by banks' project financing", said "Feroinvest" director-general Koco Angjusev.

"Proaqua" director Branislav Trpceski said the enterprise's primary objective is to provide healthy drinking water for the two towns.

"The pipelines that encompass waters of rivers Belica and Letnica will will result in additional 400 l/s in Struga and 300 l/s in the Ohrid region, which is sufficient for meeting the needs of quality potable water in the two towns during the close season", added Trpceski.