”Next year, additional 165,000 people will have a clean drinking water. We plan to invest 98.5 million euro to water management,” the Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus-Rosimannus said. In 2013, almost 40 water management projects will be completed, as a result of which 165,000 people will get high-quality drinking water and 35,000 citizens can join the public sewerage system. The larger projects include water management in Rae and Kiili rural municipalities and in small town of Saku. By today, 166 million euro has already been invested under 73 water management projects. By the end of 2015, 300,000 people will have clean drinking water. According to Pentus-Rosimannus, transition from polluting and expensive oil heating to renewable energy will be invested into next year. In 2013, a number of boiler plants will be completed that have switched to use of woodchips and biogas. ”For consumers, it is equally important that tens of kilometres of heating pipes will be fixed. The situation in which you can see the track of a heating pipe with green grass growing on it in the middle of the winter in between snowdrifts, and the heat paid for by consumers is simply used to heat the weather, is unacceptable ,” the Minister of the Environment said. Reduction of heat loss in pipes, as well as the investments to be made, will save more than one million euro according to the estimation of the Environmental Investment Centre.
4.4 million euro has been planned to the field of nature conservation in the budget of 2013. ”In nature conservation, the most attention is turned to preservation of endangered habitats and combating rapidly spreading introduced species. We also plan to renew the hiking trails and information signs for visitors of the protected areas,” the Minister of the Environment noted. |
