Brussels, 7 January 2025
Thanks to a €33 million support from Cohesion Policy, citizens in Croatia’s Adriatic coast agglomerations of Novi Vinodolski, Crikvenica and Selce will benefit from better collection and treatment of wastewater.
This area currently suffers from significant water losses, while maintenance of the sewerage network is hampered by illegal stormwater connections.
The project, which was launched in 2017 and now enters its second phase, has added close to 53 km of new sewerage pipelines to the network and reconstructed 19 km of the existing pipelines. In addition, 2.8 km of new water supply pipelines have already been built whilst 10.4 km of pipelines have been reconstructed. Ten pumping stations were constructed and five rebuilt.
Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms Raffaele Fitto said: “This project is a concrete example of how Cohesion Policy is improving the life of EU citizens every day. Citizens from Novi Vinodolski, Crikvenia and Selce can look forward to safer water, improved sewage collection and a higher attractiveness of the area for tourists. This project will also contribute to the environmental protection of the Croatian Adriatic coast as improved sewage collection and treatment will reduce contamination of the soil and sea water”.
In the second phase of the project, to be completed by 2027, the wastewater treatment plants that service the two agglomerations of Novi Vinodolski and Selce will be upgraded to provide secondary sewerage treatment. The Novi Vinodolski plant will also have a solar sludge dryer to treat sewage from both plants.
Crikvenica and Novi Vinodolski are touristic areas on the Adriatic Coast that attract about 329,000 visitors a year, or about 4.5 million overnight stays. The project will give a further boost to their attractiveness to tourists, citizens, and businesses.
For more information on EU-funded projects in Croatia, please visit the EU Cohesion projects website: Kohesio.