The EIB financing for Emasesa will improve service quality and water resource management efficiency as well as flood protection measures.

The project will have a positive impact on public health thanks to improved services, and will create a significant number of jobs in the region between 2020 and 2024.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide Empresa Metropolitana de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento de Aguas de Sevilla S.A. (Emasesa) with financing of up to €75 million to support water infrastructure investments in Seville and the surrounding municipalities between 2020 and 2024, with the aim of improving service quality. Emasesa, whose majority shareholder is the Municipality of Seville, is the entity in charge of providing water services to the city of Seville and to 11 towns in the surrounding metropolitan area.

Thanks to the EIB support, Emasesa will improve the available water infrastructure in order to increase the coverage, quality and resilience of integrated water services in the Seville metropolitan area. It will also improve operational efficiency, for example by reducing water losses, increasing energy efficiency and reducing the risk of flooding in the service area. By improving the efficiency of water supply services, the operation will help ensure the proper distribution of water in southern Spain — an area experiencing water stress — in the future.

The project will have significant benefits for public health and the environment, increasing resilience to climate risks, improving services and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As the project is located in Andalusia, a priority cohesion region in Spain that has been hit hard by the COVID-19-induced economic downturn, it will also contribute to the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the European Union. The project will create an estimated 1 100 new jobs in the region during the construction phase.

EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix said:“Substantial investments in the water sector are needed to combat the high level of water stress in Spain and to promote climate action.That is why we are financing measures such as those covered by the agreement with Emasesa. They will enable the more efficient and sustainable use of water, which will provide immediate social benefits and have a positive impact on public health, once again demonstrating our firm commitment to people’s health and to protecting the environment.”

According to the CEO of Emasesa Jaime Palop, “These investments are part of the 2030 plan, which is based on the transformation, modernisation and adaptation of Emasesa to meet the demands of society and the new challenges of climate change.Basically, our goal is to ensure that service efficiency is a public right.”

Background information:

The EU climate bank

In 2020, the EIB Group adopted its Climate Bank Roadmap to deliver on its ambitious agenda to support €1 trillion of climate action and environmental sustainability investments in the decade to 2030 and to allocate more than 50% of its financing to climate action and environmental sustainability by 2025. As part of the Roadmap, all new EIB Group operations have also been aligned with the goals and principles of the Paris Agreement since early 2021.

In 2020, for the fifth year in a row, the EIB Group increased the percentage of its activity in Spain intended to promote projects that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, up to a total of 38% (€2.85 billion), a 9 percentage point increase on the previous year. The EIB uses these funds to help develop clean transportation, energy efficiency and renewable energies, and to modernise the electricity networks, among other projects.

Emasesa (Empresa Metropolitana de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento de Aguas de Sevilla S.A.) is a Spanish water utility that manages the Seville metropolitan area’s integrated water cycle under a sustainable approach. Considered one of the leading companies in the sector in Spain, it currently supplies drinking water and provides public wastewater treatment services in Seville and 11 other towns in the surrounding metropolitan area.