Orenburg Vodokanal (a member of Rosvodokanal group of companies) will invest the total amount of 1,576 billion roubles under the investment program for the development of water supply/discharge systems in Orenburg, the company’s General Director Yevgeni Arapov told the journalists on Wednesday.

“The total investment program for water supply/discharge systems development in Orenburg for 2007-2011 will amount to 1,576 billion roubles. For the past three years 97 per cent of the program has been implemented, and those are real figures”, Arapov said.

He said that the program, in addition to improving high quality and reliability of the city’s water supply/discharge system, was aimed at reducing costs and enhancing efficiency of the resources.

“The deterioration of water distribution system reached 80%, the breakdown rate was about six times high as the permissible level. Together with the city administration we found the opportunity for investments to upgrade and develop the public utilities. For the time being, the company is controlling the operations of the municipal facilities under lease terms”, Arapov explained.

He reminded that Orenburg Vodokanal had started to provide water services in the city in October 2003. The first stage in cooperation with the city administration was marked by signing the agreement On improvement of water utilities system in Orenburg. The agreement comprised measures on further reorganization of the city water utilities management system. Based on cooperation experience of 2004 the decision was made to sign a long term agreement and adopt an investment program for 2007 – 2011 to improve the efficiency.