Established in 1995, MESKI is the public water utility of the Mersin city, providing water and wastewater services to ~1 million subscribers. MESKI is 100% owned by the Metropolitan Municipality of Mersin. The City is the eleventh largest of the country's metropolitan areas, serving a population of nearly 1.9 million inhabitants.

MESKI has a good credit profile and a self-sustaining business model, operated by an experienced administration that has been able to maintain a prudent financial management and adequate liquidity. The Board of Directors of MESKI is composed of Mr. Vahap Secer, the Mayor of MMM and Chairman of the Board; Mr. Irfan Korkmaz, General Manager of MESKI; Mr. Nizamettin Yildirim; Mr. Seyfettin Atar; and Professor Dr. Orhan VeliAlici.

The Project cost is estimated to be around EUR 100 million across the ten sub-projects. The proposed investment is an IFC A loan of up to EUR 45 million in equivalentTurkish Lira with a 15-year tenor. The Project is expected to be supported by the Clean Technology Fund, as described in the Blended Finance section.

The ten subprojects are located across five semi-rural and touristic districts of Mersin city including Tarsus, Erdemli, Silifke, Akdeniz, and Bozyazi.

 This is a Category B project according to IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability because the E&S risks and impacts associated with this project are limited, site-specific, largely reversible, and can be readily addressed through mitigation measures.

Most of the construction works for WWTPs, except the two greenfield WWTPs and pipelines, are on existing footprints or rights-of-way. Key E&S aspects relate to MESKI’s management arrangements for overseeing construction activities and the E&S management capacity of the respective contractors; construction, hazardous, and non-hazardous waste management; OHS and contractor labor and working conditions; gender and gender-based violence (GBV); community health and safety; biodiversity conservation and management; chance find cultural heritage; and stakeholder engagement.