Viru Vesi renovates water supply system in cooperation with Ida-Viru municipalities

The Toila rural municipality, as the representative of 11 Ida-Viru counties, signed a cooperation agreement with Viru Vesi AS on Tuesday for conducting a feasibil-ity study for the renovation of the water supply and sewerage systems of the municipalities.

According to the agreement, by 2006, Viru Vesi AS will conduct a feasibility study for the renovation of the existing water supply and sewerage systems in the Toila, Kohtla, Aseri, Sonda, Maidla, Jõhvi, Iisaku, Alajõe, Tudulinna, Lohusuu and Lüganuse rural municipalities and to construct new ones.

“The further goal of the project is to implement the water supply and sewerage projects pre-pared during the study,” said Mati Küünal, a member of the management board of Viru Vesi AS.

This will improve the quality of drinking water and economise the use of groundwater. Op-timisation of the maintenance costs of the water supply and sewerage systems will ensure their sustainable operation. Updating of the waste water treatment system will reduce the pollution load of the Gulf of Finland and Lake Peipus. Besides that, the development poten-tial of the local governments will increase as possibilities open to expand home construction and enterprise.

The cost of the project will be around 2 million kroons, 90% of which will be covered by the Environmental Investment Centre and 10% by the participating local governments.
The project will serve as a precondition for seeking funds from the European Union Cohesion Fund that will open in 2007.

According to Tauno Võhmari, the mayor of the Toila rural municipality, the odds of re-ceiving support from the Cohesion Fund are good only if the towns and rural munici-palities of Ida-Viru County submit an application together.
“Reorganisation of the water and sewerage management in the Toila rural municipality alone will require about 30–40 million kroons. The municipality does not have that kind of money,” he said. “That is why we have to be proactive and combine our efforts,” he explained.

The rural municipality must complete the preparations, meaning the study, which will be six to seven times cheaper under the project than alone. After three to four years, the munici-pality must cover the self-financed part.

By 2012, all the local governments must bring their water supply and sewerage systems into conformity with European Union requirements. A local government that cannot use European Union funds for that purpose must cover the costs from its own budget.

Viru Vesi AS is a subsidiary of Viru Keemia Grupp AS; its principal activities include provision of water supply and waste water discharge services, the supplying of customers with ground-water, lake and circulation water, maintenance of water supply and sewerage facilities and communications as well as repumping and biological treatment of waste water. The com-pany holds ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 certificates and employs 138 people.

Additional information:

Elina Kink
Head of Public Relations, VKG
GSM +372 523 2700
E-mail: elina.kink(at)vkg.ee