During a working trip to France, Vadim Boichenko has taken part in meetings where the issues of water supply and sanitation in Mariupol have been discussed as well as the questions of the treatment of urban wastewater have been mentioned. As a result of the meetings, further practical mechanisms for implementing cooperation were identified.
The first meeting took place in the office of Aqualter company with the director of the company Jean-Yves Tevene. This is a large French engineering and construction group of companies which specializes in the implementation of water supply projects, water treatment and sewage. The company has been operating in the French market for 45 years and it has implemented more than 900 projects around the world. Nowadays it has a number of unique patents for wastewater treatment. During the meeting, the representatives of Aqualter confirmed their readiness to participate in the implementation of water projects in Mariupol.
During the visit, the Mayor of Mariupol visited the sewage treatment plant in Chartres. The plant was built by the group of Aqualter company which took over the operation of the facility. The plant covers an area of about 10 hectares and provides treatment of sewage for 200 thousand inhabitants of France.
All modern solutions, that can be applied in Mariupol, have been realized in this project:
- stage-by-stage wastewater treatment;
- the simultaneous use of both biological and physico-chemical wastewater treatment;
- drying of silt sediments in specialized greenhouses, using the energy of heat pumps;
- full automation of processes, minimal human participation in equipment management.
After that, the Ministry of Finance of France discussed the financing of water supply, wastewater and sewage treatment projects in Mariupol. Employees of the Treasury of France Jean-Robert Joan and Alexander Laurent, as well as heads of the company BETEN International, considered the possibility of attracting a concessional loan from the Ministry of Finance of France.
The Mayor presented the participants with detailed information about the current situation in the city, the strategy, the prospects for development, as well as the key problems of the city. Vadim Boichenko emphasized the importance and priority of addressing the issues of water supply in the city.
Jean-Robert Joan noted that there is much in common in the desire to provide high quality administrative services between Mariupol and a French side. In France, there is a lot of experience in implementing Smart City solutions which could be useful to Mariupol.
The French side confirmed the possibility to include Mariupol project in the number of projects that will qualify for concessional financing from the French Ministry of Finance.
The project of preferential credit financing is unique for Ukraine, assumes a long installment plan for payment, a low interest rate and the transfer of French technologies and engineering solutions within the project. The parties agreed to prepare a project file which will be reviewed by the committee in the Ministry of Finance of France in July 2018.
