The World Bank agreed on Friday to provide a loan of 60 million euros (some 77 million U.S. dollars) to Croatia for the second stage of the Adriatic project, which is designed to protect the country's coastal area from water pollution.

Croatian Finance Minister Ivan Suker, who signed the loan agreement in the Croatian coastal town of Zadar, said that obtaining a loan of this kind, with a 6.18 percent interest rate and a five-year grace period was a big success in these times of global crisis, the Croatian news agency HINA reported.

Andras Horvai, head of the World Bank Office in Croatia, and Suker also signed a deed of donation whereby the Global Environment Fund will give Croatia a donation worth 6.4 million dollars to be used to protect the quality of coastal waters and the environment.

Horvai said that the second stage will cover 650,000 people and that this was one of the most important World Bank projects in Croatia.

The Adriatic Project is designed to improve drainage services in 33 Croatian coastal towns and municipalities where only 50 percent of the inhabitants are connected to the sewerage system and only 16 percent of waste water is purified.

The first stage of the Adriatic Project, which was also financed with a World Bank loan, consisted of projects for protection against water pollution and drainage covering 350,000 people.

The second stage of the project costs 120 million euros (some 154 million dollars) in total. Fifty percent of the funds will be provided in the form of a World Bank loan, while the remaining funds will be provided by the state budget, local self-government units and others.

Source: Xinhua