The European Investment Bank (EIB) – the EU’s lending arm – has signed a €1.2 million cooperation agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska, to support water and sanitation services. With expert technical assistance services, the project aims to upgrade the quality of water and wastewater services, provide services to unconnected households, and improve living conditions for over 216,000 people.

The investments are part of the EU-funded projects approved under the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) in 2019 for water and sanitation (WATSAN) programmes in both entities of BiH: the Federation (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS). The total investment value for both WATSAN projects is more than €215 million, with the EU and bilateral donors providing €14.4 million in grants through the WBIF, complementing €110 million in EIB loans.

The WATSAN programmes were launched in 2008 with the purpose of assisting 50 small and medium-sized municipalities in the FBiH and RS in developing sustainable water and sanitation services, in accordance with EU accession conditions.