NIB funds wastewater treatment for Helsinki metropolitan area

NIB and Helsingin Seudun Ympäristöpalvelut (HSY) have entered into a long-term, EUR 115 million loan agreement to finance a wastewater treatment plant in Blominmäki, Espoo.

The 30-year-maturity loan will finance HSY’s investment programme set up for the construction of the Blominmäki wastewater treatment facility. After commissioning in 2020, the plant will process wastewater from 400,000 people living in the Helsinki capital region.

The Blominmäki facility will replace the existing treatment plant in Suomenoja, Espoo, which was built in 1963 and is reaching the end of its operational life. The larger capacity of the new plant will be able to accommodate the 50% increase in treatment volumes that is expected over the next twenty years.

Applying tertiary wastewater processing methods, the new plant is expected to reduce the nitrogen discharge into the Baltic Sea by at least 300 tonnes a year.

Since the plant will be constructed underground, odour and noise impacts on the surrounding areas will be limited.

“State-of-the-art wastewater treatment is essential for saving the Baltic Sea marine environment from further degradation. This loan will help to improve treatment capacity in an area with a steadily growing population”, says Henrik Normann, NIB President & CEO.

Helsingin Seudun Ympäristöpalvelut (Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority) is a municipal federation responsible for water and waste management services in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For further information, please contact
Sebastian Påwals, Director, at +358 10 618 0527,
Arild Moen, Senior Communications Officer, at +358 10 618 0496