Brussels, 18/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - A new agreement grants €200 million for helping water purification structures in Wallonia. This agreement was concluded on Friday 18 March between the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Wallonian government and SPGE (Société Publique de Gestion de l'Eau). Financing will be used to pursue the large-scale investment programme for enabling Wallonia to develop modern and efficient infrastructure for water purification and protection and meet European directives in this field.
During the inauguration ceremony at the water purification station in Namur-Brumagne, Philippe Maystadt, the president of EIB, and Jean-Luc Martin and Michel Cornelis, representing the SPGE, signed the contracts for the first tranche of €100 million approved by the EIB.
With this new commitment, the EIB well have lent the SPGE €1 billion since 2004, in an attempt to speed up the investment available to Wallonia. Belgium, particularly the region of Wallonia, has been significantly lagging behind in the water purification field as defined under the European directive on purifying urban and residuary water. With the programme undertaken by the SPGE, the EIB considers that this situation will begin to be rectified (O.L./transl.fl)