Baltic news
Finland's Ministry of the Environment to provide more funds for wastewater treatment in St Petersburg
The Ministry of the Environment will contribute funds amounting to 400,000 euros towards improvements in phosphorus removal at the St Petersburg North wastewater treatment plant, where new phosphorus removal facilities should be up and running by the end of 2009. As more wastewater is fed into the plant over the coming years, instead of being released untreated into waterways, the phosphorus loads entering the Gulf of Finland will decline by almost 10% (600 tonnes a year).
The Finnish Ministry of the Environment and the St Petersburg water company Vodokanal have been testing chemical phosphorus removal techniques since 2005. Trial procedures conducted by Kemira Oyj have accelerated the implementation of phosphorus removal at six wastewater treatment plants, including the St Petersburg Central plant – the city’s largest. The total costs of projected wastewater treatment improvements at St Petersburg North will amount to some 700,000 euros.
The plant today treats wastewater from the homes of about 1.3 million people in northern districts of the city, but this figure will double over the years 2008-2012 as more homes are connected to the plant through sewerage tunnels currently under construction.
Support from EU Northern Dimension funds for the Neva Project
The ministry’s support for the St Petersburg North plant is related to the EU Northern Dimension’s Neva Project, which aims to halt all releases of untreated sewage into the River Neva, which flows into the Gulf of Finland at St Petersburg. The steering group of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) earmarked 30 million euros of funding for the project on June 4th. This new investment should enable the construction of sewerage tunnels leading to the St Petersburg North wastewater treatment plant, as well as renovation work at the plant and other plants in Zelenogorsk.
The Neva Project is part of a wider investment strategy for St Petersburg’s water services drawn up with support from Finland and Sweden. The resultant programme, with its budget of almost 900 million euros, aims to implement cost-effective measures to reduce eutrophication in the Baltic Sea. Russia is contributing 790 million euros to the programme from the federal budget and the finances of the City of St Petersburg and the St Petersburg water company. Some 60 million euros of funding will be obtained through international loans.
The NDEP provides extensive funding for environmental protection projects in Northwestern Russia. Finland has contributed a total of 18 million euros to the related funds. International financial institutions, the EU Commission and several other donor countries are also involved.
Since 1991 Finland’s Ministry of the Environment has contributed funds totalling 30 million euros to support wastewater treatment projects in St Petersburg. The St Petersburg water company is striving to reach targets set out in the new Baltic Sea Action Plan of the Helsinki Commission for the protection of the Baltic marine environment (HELCOM) by 2015.
For more information:
Laura Saijonmaa, senior adviser, Ministry of the Environment: tel. +358 40 546 3344
Pirjo Rantanen, research engineer, Finnish Environment Institute: tel. +358 400 148810