Page 92 - Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities
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United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Enhancing Innovation and Participation
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
After separating from Yugoslavia in 1991, Maribor went through a period of transition, where old big companies
(TAM, Metalna, …) disappeared one after another and the city lost around 12 000 jobs. Water quality in the river
Drava was very poor because of the direct outflow of waste water, so the city decided to build a waste-water
clearing facility. The process started in 1994 and through a public-private partnership (PPP) it was finished in 1998,
when preparation for construction started. Following the completion of Phase 1, it started operating in 2002.
The process of clearing water in the river Drava was connected to efforts made in Austria, from where Drava joins
Slovenia. Also there was need for a sustainable system of waste water treatment that the city did not have. In
Slovenia the river Drava has nine hydropower plants, two are downstream from Maribor and water quality is also
important to their production.
1.2 Challenge and response
The biggest challenge for the city administration was how to run a successful PPP and how to assess the long-term
consequences for the city’s budget. The city administration lacked previous experience of PPPs (Maribor was one
of first cities in Slovenia with a PPP for this kind of project).
This solution is about smart governance of the city, where this kind of waste-water treatment plant is necessary
for every city and if completed in the right way it can benefit a city in many ways. Below is a short history of this
PPP process:
August 1994 Pre-qualification
June 1995 Tender
January 1997 LDE – Preferred Bidder
January 97 / June 98 Negotiation
29 July 1998 Contract Signing
Development Period
16 November 1999 Signature of the construction contract
28 April 2000 Signing of the Loan Agreement
09 June 2000 Start of the Construction (Phase I)
09 December 2001 Start of the Construction (New Phase II)
10 June 2002 Phase I start of Operation
08 July 2002 MoU - New Phasing
31 January 2003 Amendment of Concession (New Phasing)
27 May 2003 Final Acceptance – Phase I
February 2004 Phase II start of Operation
Figure 18 Short history of the Maribor PPP process
2 The smart project
2.1 Vision and content
This project was implemented to bring the city to another level, to improve the environment in Maribor. It has
contributed to many areas of life in the city, beginning with a clear river with life forms that were missing
previously. Today the water quality is near the standards required for swimming in natural lakes and rivers and a
lot of different birds choose river Drava in Maribor and Ptuj as their summer/winter habitat. Citizens can also now,
without health risks, use the river for water sports and fishing, which brings a greater quality of life to the city. The
project made a strategic decision for the city whereby every house, factory, street and open space has to be
connected into the system, so waste water in the city must go to a facility and after treatment it can be released
in the river downstream.
90 U4SSC series
