Accessto sanitation is a basic public service, essential for maintaining adequate health, improving quality of life, and protecting aquatic environments. This is why the EIB is working with the Asian Development Bank to co-finance a project that will improve sanitation services for 235 000 people in the southern areas of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.

The project will rehabilitate and expand the wastewater system to bring significant economic and environmental benefits:

• 51km of new or upgraded sewerage or storm water pipes;
• three new pumping stations;
• 83 000 people in low-income areas connected to the sewage system for the first time;
• new wastewater treatment plant to serve 330 000 people, avoiding discharge of untreated sewage into watercourses;
• reduced healthcare costs from waterborne diseases;
• reduced household cost for sewage disposal.

The EIB’s EUR 50m loan is critical in enabling this EUR 156m project to go ahead. The 25-year duration, matching the life of the improvements being financed, is otherwise unavailable in the Sri Lankan context. The new infrastructure is designed to provide greater resilience to extreme weather conditions such as storms with extreme rainfall.