The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a loan for a project to desalinate water from the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan.
Operative Information Center-OMM reports, citing the AIIB.
The financing amounts to $45 million, according to the information.
The Azerbaijan Caspian Sea Desalination Project (the “Project”) involves developing, building and operating a desalination plant that will produce treated water from the Caspian Sea, with a capacity of approximately 300,000 cubic metres per day. The plant will be located on the Caspian coast in the industrial zone of Sumgait. It will be Azerbaijan’s first large-scale seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant and the first public-private partnership (PPP) project in the water sector.
The PPP Agreement (PPPA) was signed between the sponsor, ACWA Power, and the water off-taker, the Azerbaijan State Water Resources Agency (ADSEA), for a 25-year term starting from the Project’s planned commercial operation date. The Ministry of Finance provides a guarantee mechanism for payment obligations during the operational period. ACWA Power is currently the Project’s sole sponsor. Caspian Sea Azerbaijan Project Company has been established and will act as the Project’s borrower.
The AIIB’s Environmental and Social Policy (ESP), including its Environmental and Social Standards (ESS) and Environmental and Social Exclusion List (ESEL), applies to the Project.
