BiH city pledges to join EBRD’s urban sustainability programme

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Brcko city is pledging to join the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) fast-expanding EUR 3 billion urban sustainability programme EBRD Green Cities. The district in the north of the country faces significant environmental challenges which the programme will aid in addressing.

Brcko District’s mayor Esed Kadric and EBRD’s Head of Bosnia and Herzegovina Manuela Naessl signed a memorandum of understanding, which facilitates the cooperation between the district and the Bank in the field of urban sustainable infrastructure investments. The programme already features more than 50 cities across the regions where the Bank invests. It is especially strong in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Banja Luka, Sarajevo and Zenica already signed up to it.
“The environmental challenges in Bosnia and Herzegovina are significant and include high air pollution, low energy and water efficiency as well as a lack of public transport options. We are glad that we are already working with several municipalities and cantons to address some of these issues. EBRD Green Cities offers tangible support to cities to improve their environmental performance and at the same time also improve the quality of people’s lives. We are very happy that Brcko will soon benefit from this programme too,” said Ms Naessl.

For a start the EBRD will work with Brcko on identifying sustainable investments, which will involve areas such as solid waste management, water and wastewater, urban transport, district heating and the energy efficiency of public buildings. Identifying priority investments and the development of an action plan for Brcko is supported with donor funds from Austria and Italy.

A trigger investment in Brcko is the planned construction of a main water transmission pipeline. It will regulate water pressure across the urban area and bring better quality water service to the city’s inhabitants, while reducing water losses and saving energy. The city hopes to complete the financing for this project in 2021.