The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending ECU 45 million (1) for schemes to improve living-conditions in Adana, South-East Turkey. The EIB is supporting the investments because of their environmental and regional benefit in the Mediterranean.

The funds from the EIB, the European Union's long-term financing institution, are made available through the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Programme (2), and carry an interest rate subsidy of 3%, from European Union budgetary funds.

The loan goes to Adana Water and Sewerage Administration (ASKI), the water supply and sewerage disposal utility of the Municipality of Adana. The investment concerns works to improve and extend the sewage and drainage collection network, serving a total population of some 1.6 million inhabitants. Greater Adana is the fourth largest agglomeration in Turkey, and a fast expanding industrial and commercial centre, with a rich agricultural hinterland. The investment is part of a major programme drawn up in 1994 to improve wastewater collection and treatment. The scheme's tariff study and a prioritisation of investments was recently financed by the EIB in the framework of the METAP programme (3).

Works include the construction of a biological and a preliminary waste water treatment plant with a capacity of 230 000 m3/day and 170 000 m3/day of hydraulic load respectively, 34 km trunk main sewers, 220 km secondary and tertiary sewers, and 17 km storm water drainage systems.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's long-term financing institution supporting capital investment projects which further EU policy objectives. It also participates in the implementation of EU co-operation policies towards third countries that have co-operation or association agreements with the Union. EIB lending outside the EU in 1996 amounted to ECU 2.3 billion, out of a total of ECU 23.2 billion. The Bank lends in some 120 countries having association or co-operation agreements with the EU: African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries signatories of the Lomé IV Convention; Mediterranean, Central and Eastern European, Asian and Latin American countries. Since 1992 in 12 countries in the southern and eastern rims of the Mediterranean, the Bank has advanced some ECU 3 billion.Since 1992, a total of ECU 389.5 million has been advanced in Turkey. A particular emphasis has been given to supporting environmental and energy projects, as well as transport and telecom projects. Small and medium-sized industry projects have been financed through global loans to the Turkish banking sector.


(1) The conversion rates used by the EIB for statistical purposes during the current quarter are those obtaining on 30 September 1997, when ECU 1 = GBP 0.69, IEP 0.76, USD 1.113, EGP 3.7380.

(2) The amount of EIB loans to be made available under the EuroMed facility has been fixed at ECU 2.31 billion. There is no allocation of funds on a country by country basis.

(3) The "Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program" (METAP) was launched in 1990 to address the sea's very specific environmental problems. METAP is designed to assist countries with a Mediterranean coastline to find solutions, at a national and regional level, to common environmental problems by developing policy options and mobilising grant resources. The programme is co-managed by the EIB and the World Bank, in partnership with the European Commission and the UNDP. Its recently established regional office in Cairo will help to prepare future investment projects in co-operation with national authorities of the countries concerned.