Belgium: New EU loan of EUR 200m to Société wallonne des eaux

On Monday 14 November 2016 at the Polygone de l’eau in Verviers, Mr Pim van Ballekom, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and Mr Eric Smit, Chairman of the Management Board of Société wallonne des eaux (SWDE), signed a EUR 200m loan agreement for SWDE projects over the next three years.

A third loan in 10 years

Since 2006, Société wallonne des eaux has received two EIB loans totalling EUR 275m. These amounts have enabled SWDE to increase its production capacity from dams (Eupen and Gileppe in eastern Belgium) and quarries (the Transhennuyère complex) with the construction of nanofiltration units to make raw water safe for drinking and with the installation of a third clarifier at the Nisramont dam. This finance has also served to accelerate the modernisation and extension of distribution networks, the replacement of lead piping and the construction of new operating centres that are more suitable, better equipped, better located and more energy efficient and environmentally friendly (in Aye, Stembert and Gaurain-Ramecroix).

Securing water supply

SWDE's challenge in the coming years will be to continue to renovate its network but also to secure water supply across the whole Walloon Region, taking into account population growth and the expansion of business areas. To this end, it will be necessary to improve connections between areas with surplus production capacity and areas that have reached their limit. These projects, which come under the Regional Water Resources Plan, require several hundred million euros’ worth of investment.

The EIB delegation was treated to a demonstration of the remote management unit that SWDE will deploy via 1 000 water capture, treatment and storage structures over the next five years. This project will improve the monitoring of inflows and outflows and contribute to the strategic objective of reducing water losses from distribution networks.

Mr Eric Smit, Chairman of SWDE's Management Board, welcomed the decision taken by the EIB's Board of Directors to grant a new loan to SWDE following a careful appraisal of future projects and a visit to assess projects already completed. He pointed out that the EIB was now SWDE’s biggest lender, on very favourable financing terms that enable the company to support its modernisation drive whilst substantially reducing the level of financial charges and thus the impact on the price per m³ charged to households.

At the signing ceremony EIB Vice-President Pim van Ballekom declared: “I wish to congratulate SWDE on its upgrading programme. Water quality and security of supply are very important elements that we take for granted in our society but they are not a given and would not be sustainable without considerable investment and great expertise. We are delighted to enter into this new partnership in which we will play to the full our role as the financier of Europe alongside SWDE to facilitate the implementation of its projects on time and to budget, thereby offering the people of the Walloon Region the cheapest possible water according to the ‘true cost’ principle.”

The EIB is thus pursuing its objectives in support of the environment and the development of innovative, sustainable infrastructure and high-quality services whilst enabling the Region to comply with the EU's regulatory requirements. In the past two decades, the water sector in Belgium has received more than EUR 4bn in EIB financing, of which EUR 1.8bn has gone to projects promoted by Walloon partners (SWDE, CILE, SPGE).

Speech of EIB Vice-President Van Ballekom

Powerpoint