Water supply and sanitation in Belgium is provided by a large variety of organizations: Most of the 581 municipalities of Belgium have delegated the responsibility for water supply and sanitation to regional or inter-municipal utilities. There are more than 62 water supply utilities, including 2 regional, 30 inter-municipal and 30 municipal utilities. Another 100 mostly small municipalities provide services directly without having a legally of financially separate entity for water supply.Belgaqua:Aperçu des Structures de Gestion du Secteur de l'Eau Potable en Belgiuqe , 2001, p. 8 Water is not scarce in Belgium and water supply is generally continuous and of good quality. However, wastewater treatment has long lagged behind and Brussels only achieved full treatment of its wastewater in 2007. In 2004 the European Court of Justice ruled condemning Belgium's failure to comply with the EU wastewater directive, and the ruling has not been fully complied with so far. Wallonia satisfies 55% of the national needs in drinking water while it counts only 37% of the population. Flanders and Brussels are dependent on drinking water from Wallonia, at a level of 40% and 98% respectively.
An interesting aspect of the Belgian water and sanitation sector is the recognition of a basic right to water. The Walloon and Brussels Regions have set up Social Funds for Water, which provide financial support to people having difficulties to pay their water bill. In Flanders a social tariff, people who qualify only pay 1/5th of the base tariff. Every Flemish person used to have the right to a minimal supply of 15 m3 (41 liter/capita/day) of free water per person per year, but this benefit was revoked on January 1, 2016.
The average water tariff in Belgium for large users in 2008 was Euro 8.92 per cubic meter, the second-highest among 14 industrial countries compared in a recent survey. Between 2003 and 2008 water tariffs in Belgium had increased by 80%, the highest increase in that period among all 14 countries.NUS Consulting:2007-2008 International Water Report and Cost Survey , accessed on May 1, 2009
Water resources
Belgium's water resources are distributed among five river basins, the two main ones being the Meuse and the Scheldt that both take their source in France and flow into the sea in the Netherlands. The major aquifers are located in Wallonia. Belgium does not face water stress, despite its high density of population. Internal water availability is around 12,000 million m3/year (average 1990–2004), or 1,168 m3/capita/year.World Resources Institute:Water Resources and Freshwater Ecosystems - Belgium, 2003 The yield of groundwater is around 900 million m3, exploited at a rate of 75%. This picture hides strong regional disparities, with the North dependent from the South. Wallonia satisfies 55% of the national needs in drinking water while it counts only 37% of the population. Flanders and Brussels are dependent on drinking water from Wallonia, at a level of 40% and 98% respectively. The picture is complicated by the strong dependence of the Netherlands on the water of the Meuse for its drinking water production.euwareness Belgium: Frédéric Varone and David Aubin :The Evolution of the National Water Regime in Belgium, 2002
Drinking water production withdraws 707 million m3 in 2005 (10% of the total withdrawals), 65% produced from groundwater, often distributed without prior treatment, and 35% from surface water, more expensive to produce. For example, Brussels receives its water from springs, groundwater and the Meuse, all located in Wallonia. Modave in the Hoyoux valley, located more than 100 km Southwest of Brussels, produces about 20% of the capital's water supply from galleries in the hills surrounding the valley. In Mons surface water from the Meuse is treated to provide another 30% of the city's water needs; in Vedrin, part of Namur, water is pumped from an abandoned pyrite mine; springs in Genappe, wells in Waterloo and Zaventem, and mines in Ligny and Écaussinnes provide the remainder of Brussel's water supply.La Tribune:HISTOIRES D'EAU, accessed on May 2, 2009 The city of Antwerp is supplied with water from the Albert Canal. The city of Liège is supplied from wells pumping from the Hesbaye aquifer.
Distribution losses are estimated at 13%.Secteur Public Fédéral - Economie, PME, Classes moyennes et Energie:Ressources et utilisations de l'eau, accessed on May 2, 2009 According to some sources residential water consumption was 106 liter/capita/day, while other sources say it was 135 liter/capita/day in 2003, down from 171 liter/capita/day in 1995.
Infrastructure
In 2005 the length of the drinking water network was 101,026 km with 4 million connections. In 2001 Belgium had 511 wastewater treatment plants serving 6.6 m inhabitants. 90% of the population was connected to sewers and 47% of the population had its wastewater treated in a public wastewater treatment plant. In 2003 the number of wastewater treatment plants had increased to 541.Secteur Public Fédéral - Economie, PME, Classes moyennes et Energie:Environnement - eau, accessed on May 2, 2009
History and recent developments
Attempt at creating basin agencies
Before World War II, Belgian policymakers focused on drinking water supply with little emphasis on sanitation. The national water company Société Nationale de Distribution d'Eau (SNDE) or Nationale Maatschappij der Waterleidingen was set up in 1923 to provide water supply where municipalities did not have the ability to do so on their own. After the war the emphasis moved to the management of wastewater with an initial focus on industries. In 1963, authorities admitted that there was a lack of implementation and the institutional arrangement was redesigned: Through the law of 1967 on the regulation of non-navigable rivers and the laws of 1971 on the protection of surface and groundwater the Central State attempted to reinforce its competence to the detriment of the municipalities. The Minister of Public Health promoted the creation of three public companies of purification responsible of the collective systems of purification and with a power of advice on industrial discharges in surface water. The territory of the companies corresponded to three water basins (the Coast, Meuse and Scheldt), and not to the three Belgian regions. This design did not anticipate the federalisation process launched in 1970. Implementation thus failed once again: The laws on the protection of groundwater and surface water have not been implemented and the purification companies have functionally created.
The regionalization of policy and institutions
The Regions start to develop their own water policy from 1974 onwards. Intercommunales were created in Wallonia since 1977. In the 1980s the first regional water decrees focus on the protection of potential drinking water. The SNDE breaks apart in the early 1980s, splitting into the Société Wallonne des Distributions d'Eau (SWDE) renamed and the Vlaamse Maatschappij voor Watervoorziening (VMW), renamed De WatergroepSWDE : la garantie de qualité pour l'eau wallonne (Belgique) According to The Evolution of the Natural Water Regime in Belgium, "[t]he different regional water regimes end up being very dissimilar, as they are inspired by different models from abroad (France and the Netherlands)."
Lagging behind on wastewater treatment
The 1994 European directive on wastewater raises the pressure on Member States to act on wastewater treatment. Despite major efforts undertaken in this respect, Belgium lagged behind in its implementation of the directive. In 2000 the European Commission observed that the Flanders Region has failed to identify sensitive areas correctly, that the Walloon Region has failed to apply the treatment requirements for urban waste waters discharged into sensitive areas, that both the Brussels and Walloon Regions have failed to provide the Commission with adequate implementation programs and that all the Belgian Regions have failed to ensure that appropriate collection and treatment systems have been established.European Commission DG XI:waste water treatment: Commission moves against Italy, Austria, Germany and Belgium, 5 July 2000 In 2004 the European Court of Justice ruled condemning Belgium's failure to comply with the wastewater directive in that 114 settlements in Flanders, 60 in Wallonia and Brussels-Capital had either no wastewater collection systems or did not ensure that wastewaters were made subject to specific phosphorus and nitrogen treatment before being discharged into the natural environment.Environmental Industry News:Waste water treatment: European Commission gives Luxembourg final warning, seeks clarifications from Belgium, 17 October 2007
Case study:Wastewater treatment in Brussels
The Brussels-Capital Region is part of the Senne basin, itself being part of the Scheldt (Escaut) basin. The Senne, which had become a heavily polluted drain, was covered at the end of the 19th century when parts of the river disappeared under boulevards. During the 1950s it was completely covered, with a mixture of storm water and untreated wastewater being discharged into the environment until 2007. To remedy this situation, a wastewater management plan was put together in the 1980s and early 1990s by the Brussels and Flanders regions. It foresaw the construction of two wastewater treatment plants, one in the South and the other in the North. The Brussels-South wastewater treatment plant, situated between Anderlecht and Forest, came into service in July 2000. It treats about a third of the Brussels's wastewater. A 20-year Built-Operate Transfer contract for the larger Brussels-North wastewater treatment plant was awarded to Acquiris, a consortium led by Veolia Water, in 2001. The plant was completed in March 2007 and discharges into the Brussels–Scheldt Maritime Canal.
Introducing the basic right to water
Flemish Region. Since 1997, the Flemish Region has recognised that "every customer is entitled to a basic uninterrupted supply of [...] water for household purposes in order to be able to live decently according to prevailing living standards".International Environmental Law Research Centre, Chiara Armeni:THE RIGHT TO WATER IN BELGIUM, 2008
Walloon region. Since 2003, the right to equitable access to water for everyone has been a point of Walloon law, with a tax of 0,0125 euros/m3 going into a Social Fund set up to help pay for water for those in francophone areas who cannot afford it. There was no assistance provided for communities speaking German. In 2008, the IELRC reported that Wallonia was also "in the process of introducing a new water tax to finance water projects in selected developing countries".
Belgian constitution. If a 2006 proposal before the Belgian Senate is passed, the Constitution of Belgium will be amended with a new paragraph on Article 23 recognising a constitutional "right to an adequate water supply, sufficient in quality and quantity".
Responsibility for service provision Belgium is a Federal State composed by three regions: the Flemish region, the Walloon region and the Brussels-Capital region.
Policy and regulation
The governments of the regions are responsible policy and regulation related to water supply and sanitation, and for environmental policy more generally. Within the regional governments, the leading role is assured by the regional administrations of the environment: The Flemish Ministry Energy, the Environment and Nature with its environmental agency in Flanders,Vlaamse leefmilieuadministratie, accessed on May 2, 2009 the Direction générale des Ressources naturelles et de l'Environnement (DGRNE) in Wallonia and the Institut Bruxellois pour la Gestion de l'Environnement (IBGE) in Brussels. The Federal Government has only a very limited role in water supply and sanitation.
Service provision