National
Development Agency

Altogether 9 major projects have been given a nod of approval by Brussels pursuant to the present decision; moreover, a further 14 major projects have already been approved by the Government and 12 of these are currently awaiting approval in Brussels. Mr Imre Szabó, Minister for Environmental Protection and Water, held a spokesperson’s press conference on the two major projects that have just been approved.   

The way in which Hungary has submitted the highest number of major projects in Brussels from among the member states of the European Union demonstrates the success of Hungary’s development policy. These investments are also significant because of the way major investments prepared to a high standard represent responses to the challenges the building industry and Hungarian labour market is facing in the context of the international financial and economic crisis. The two major projects that have just been approved are among the 636 major investments that will create contracts worth 1800 billion HUF for enterprises operating in the building industry during the course of 2009 and 2010.   

Development of waste water treatment and the sewage pipeline network in Nyíregyháza
The construction of the missing sections of the sewage pipeline network will be completed in Nyíregyháza and its surrounding region within the framework of this major project by implementing an investment worth over 12.7 billion HUF; waste water treatment plant No. 2 in Nyíregyháza will once again begin to operate and a new composting plant will also be built to ensure the state-of-the-art treatment of sewage sludge. This investment will considerably help reduce soil, as well as surface and sub-surface water pollution, hence creating a cleaner and healthier environment for a total of 130,000 residents.     

The sewage drainage network was constructed at an earlier date in the settlements of Nyírpazony, Kótaj and Kálmánháza belonging to the agglomeration of Nyíregyháza. However, there are several sporadically located streets and road sections in the county centre that were left out of waste water investments implemented earlier; moreover, a sewage pipeline network has not been developed in new districts or small farm clusters outside settlements either. 207 kilometres of waste water pipeline will be laid within the framework of developments about to be launched and over 8,000 households will be connected to this network. This construction work extends to include the restoration of 180,000 square metres of road surface and footpath pavement. Gravitation canals of a total of 146 kilometres will be built or renewed and an additional 89 pumping stations will be established or upgraded within the framework of the project.

The development and extension of waste water treatment plant No. 2 currently out of operation is the key component of the waste water investment to be implemented in Nyíregyháza. This site will not only ease the load on waste water treatment plant No. 1, currently operating above capacity, but will also be capable of treating the waste water of the districts to be connected, as well as the volume of waste water of areas currently connected to the network, which is expected to increase in the future due to higher rates of consumption. Following the extension of the site and the complete replacement of mechanical installations, it will be capable of receiving up to 500 cubic metres of pumped sewage per day.

A new composting plant will also be built as a part of this investment at the site of the old, low-capacity and outdated composting plant. This new plant will operate at a 10.81-tonne capacity and will receive sludge forming in both waste water treatment plants on a daily basis.

The European Union-funded waste water network development programme represents major progress in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County in terms of environmental protection. According to estimates, approximately 750,000 cubic metres of waste water is absorbed into the soil each year in Nyíregyháza and its surrounding area, which considerably pollutes ground water and raises its level. Once these investments are completed, non-treated waste water in the county centre of Szabolcs County may decrease by 80%, i.e., 600,000 cubic metres, by 2012. Some 3500 residents will, in the true sense of the word, be able to breathe once again by eliminating the odour of waste water pumping stations and developing the composting plant. 

The Government approved this project in October last year and NDA sent the project to Brussels for approval in the same month. The contract for the construction of the waste water treatment plant and composting plant is expected to be concluded mid-July, whilst the contract for the pipeline network is anticipated to be concluded at the end of July.
The project costing an estimated total of over 12.7 billion HUF will be implemented with the help of EU funding of 9.9 billion HUF and is expected to be completed by December 2011.

Mecsek-Dráva Waste Management Project
The Government approved this investment in August last year; the complex system to be implemented with the help of EU funding will resolve the problem of treating 200,000 tonnes of waste per year for 426,000 residents of 313 settlements. The aim of this investment is to set up a regional waste collection system, as well as a selective collection, recycling and disposal system. Within the framework of this project, a regional waste management centre – with a waste sorting plant operating at a capacity of 30,000 tonnes, mechanical biological pre-treatment plant operating at a capacity of 150,000 tonnes and a composting plant operating at a capacity of 9,750 tonnes - will be set up at the Pécs-Kökény site for 12 towns and 301 settlements and two additional regional waste management sub-centres operating at a total annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes will be built in Barcs and Marcali. Regional waste collection will be performed with the help of 4 waste reloading stations to be set up in Kaposszekcső, Pécs, Barcs and Szentlőrinc, which will optimise the collection of a total of 53,000 tonnes of waste per year. In addition, a waste yard used for collecting paint, dry batteries, as well as medical and electronic waste will be created and containers used for selective waste collection will be set up at 820 points.    

Municipal solid waste management in the region is not even resolved in the mid-term; the capacity of the currently operating site is only sufficient for another 1-2 years. The technological protection and insulation of the vast majority of waste dumps in the area is sub-standard, which is why they need to be shut down by summer 2009. The only waste sorting plant and composting plant in the region are insufficient to ensure the modern treatment of waste accumulating in the region. Remaining waste that is not collected selectively is pre-treated; the organic matter extracted is biologically stabilised, whilst the rest is recycled for energy purposes or dumped at the dump site following the extraction of metals by using a magnetic separation technique.    

As an outcome of this development, all settlements will have access to selective waste collection either through household bins or selective waste containers. The ratio of recycled waste material will increase three-fold by 2015; specific types of waste never before used for this purpose – i.e., combined burning in power plants and cement factories - will be recycled and used to generate energy; whilst waste dumped at waste dumps without being pre-treated will decrease to 1/13th of its current volume. Moreover, only a minimum volume of organic waste will be dumped at various sites once the project is completed; the wide-spread introduction of composting in Hungary, creating the opportunity for bio-stabilisation and composting in the area of the project, will help achieve this.       

A total of 11.8 billion HUF, i.e. 70% of the project costing a total of 16.87 billion HUF will be covered by EU funding. Construction work is expected to commence at the beginning of next year and shall be completed by summer 2012.  

Hungary named over 40 major projects, out of which 23 projects have already been approved by the Government. We have already sent 21 of these to decision-makers in Brussels, which means that beyond the 9 major projects approved so far, a further 12 projects are currently awaiting approval in Brussels. All of these projects are transport development or environmental protection investments and, due to their value, need to be approved by Brussels. (The vast majority of major projects are investments exceeding 13 billion HUF in value, whilst the maximum value of environmental protection projects is 6.5 billion HUF. Therefore, beyond approval by the Government of the given member state, the approval of the European Commission is equally needed in the case of these major projects.)   

Hungarian major projects include major transport investments, such as Metro Line 4, the development of the tramway network in Debrecen and Miskolc, Motorway M7, the construction of Highway M43 and the development of the Kelenföld-Székesfehérvár train line. But at the same time, major environmental protection developments are currently also awaiting approval in Brussels, such as, the waste water programme of Makó and its surrounding region.