About 300,000 residents of Romania’s Mures and Harghita counties are to benefit from improved water and wastewater services, and 60,000 people will gain access to a reliable water supply with the support of a €15.9 million financing from the EBRD.

The loan is extended to S.C. Compania Aquaserv S.A., the water utility company operating in Mures county in central Romania, to finance the extension and modernisation of water infrastructure.

The EBRD financing is part of the Bank’s Regional EU Cohesion Fund Co-financing Framework (R2CF), and will be used to co-finance the company’s €115 million EU Cohesion Fund investment programme for upgrading regional water and wastewater facilities.

The project will enable S.C. Compania Aquaserv S.A. to expand and modernise its water and wastewater network in seven towns – Targu Mures, Reghin, Sighisoara, Tarnaveni, Ludus, Iernut and Cristuru Secuiesc, as well as 57 communes. With the support of the Bank’s investment, most of the region’s population served by the company will be connected to a centralised water supply by 2014.

The investment will help S.C. Compania Aquaserv S.A. improve the quality of its water supply, wastewater collection and treatment services in line with relevant EU directives, and allow the company to improve its operational efficiency through reduced water losses and lower costs.

The project is supported by technical assistance grants provided by the government of Spain and the Bank’s Shareholder Special Fund.

R2CF was launched in 2010 as a €200 million EBRD framework to provide additional financing to Romanian municipalities by investing in water and wastewater infrastructure. To date the framework has mobilised more than €1 billion of EU funding for Romania’s water and wastewater facilities.

Previously, the EBRD supported similar investments in Bistrita-Nasaud, Braila, Brasov, Buzau, Constanta, Covasna, Dambovita, Iasi, Sibiu and Timis counties.

Since the beginning of its operations in Romania the EBRD has invested over €5.7 billion in more than 300 projects in various sectors of the country’s economy.