These practices had negative environmental impacts on water bodies —nitrates run-off, industrial metals and organic contaminants—but they received little attention. [16], The development of water policy in Belgium has happened under the simultaneous and seemingly contradictory forces of Europeanization and regionalization.

[11] Even if Belgium has been declared a federal state only in 1993. The three Regions have authority in respect of socio-economic matters, such as zoning and planning, housing, agriculture, employment, and energy. EU environmental legislation was initially aimed at creating a level playing field for a common market: by establishing common environmental laws, EU member states wanted to ensure that any costs associated with pollution were assumed entirely by the polluter member state, and not by any other EU country. The region favored the establishment of local river agreements (contrats de rivière), which bring together local authorities, riparian users and local stakeholders to define a program of actions for the restoration of the rivers, their surroundings and the water resources of the basin. Belgium has cooler and wetter conditions compared to much of the rest of Europe due to the North Sea. Monica Garcia Quesada PhD (LSE) is a researcher based in Brussels (Belgium). Timid initiatives were taken in 1950, when a new law on the protection of water was adopted, aiming to ensure a sufficient river flow capable of taking water pollutants to the sea. Photo: Dried-up lake in Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen, a beautiful nature reserve in Ghent, Belgium | Shutterstock Thus, satisfying Brussels’ and Flanders’ water needs depends on resources existing beyond their regional frontiers. Important improvements have been made as a result. [5], Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen from 90 Mton CO2-eq in 2003 to 85 Mton CO2-eq in 2006. Annual freshwater availability in Belgium is with 1174 m³ per capita low, which contrasts with 5,393 in the Netherlands, 11,872 in Hungary or the 2,274 m³per capita in Germany. As in any other industrial country, water pollution has been one of the great—if not the greatest—and longstanding environmental challenges facing Belgium. It is a constitutional monarchy that shares borders with France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxemburg. The Brussels-South plant is managed by Vivaqua, a publicly owned regional water company responsible for drinking water catchment and distribution, and collection and treatment of wastewater in the region. At present, 8 of the 12 migratory fish (found in Belgium's rivers) are threatened.

The second major challenge has been the renewal of the sewage network, which has been financed by important increases in household bills. Although Flanders is the only region with a coastal line, increasing salinity of groundwater may cause more demands for drinking water in Wallonia, while slower flow at the mouth of the rivers may increase floods upstream. While in 2000 only 42 percent of the population was connected to at least secondary urban waste water treatment, in 2013 the percentage was 84.2 percent. Estimation of pollution in Belgium, using perception.

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Her work has been published in the Journal of Public Policy, the International Review of Administrative Sciences and the Journal of Public Administration, amongst others. Between 1975 and 2000, 12 water directives were adopted to deal with the negative effects of different sources of pollution in diverse recipient waters. [17]See Eurostat data at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Water_statistics. [12], "Belgium Hosts Europe's Best Recycling and Prevention Program", "Quiet Brussels: a new 'noise plan' for Brussels-Capital Region", "First National Park opened – Milestone for Belgium's Countdown 2010", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Environment_of_Belgium&oldid=929956882, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 December 2019, at 09:07. The WFD has been a fundamental text for the management and the protection of water bodies in Europe. In this article, we describe the main features of the country and trace the principal characteristics of water resources in Belgium, identifying the commonalties it shares with neighboring countries, but also the particularities of the country.

PM2.5 particles are more concerning because their small size allows them to travel deeper into the cardiopulmonary system.The World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines recommend that the annual mean concentrations of PM2.5 should not exceed 10 µg/m3 and 20 µg/m3 for PM10.Cities and rural areas worldwide are affected by air pollution. These circumstances require a common national policy for water resources management, which has not been developed. Following is a list of 10 major problems. In the south of Belgium, the deposition of airborne pollutants from the industrial areas of Antwerp and the Ruhr is For this, it created Aquafin, a publicly owned company responsible for the treatment of urban wastewater in the region, and it took definitive steps towards the integrated management of waters in Flanders which resulted in the adoption, in 2003, of the Regional Law on Integrated Water Policy. Following the approach of the Netherlands, a Red List was created for Belgium. A firmer coordinated effort will be needed in the future as the three regions face population growth and climate change. Bruxelles Environnement (2015) Consommation et prix de l’eau de distribution, IBGE, Collection de fiches documentees. This is part of our special feature on Water in Europe and the World. With only concrete dikes separating them from the sea, these lands are especially threatened by flooding. In 1999, an ambitious construction program and a new model of financing were designed to meet wastewater treatment standards after years of poor implementation, and a new regional company destined to water services provision and the protection of water catchment was created (Société Publique de gestion de l’eau). He is professor at UCLouvain where he teaches policy analysis, evaluation and environmental policy. The development of a policy to fight against water pollution in Belgium was started in the early 1970s, matching with initiatives adopted both at the international and the European levels.

[14] Aubin, D., P. Cornut and F. Varone (2007), “Access to water resources in Belgium: strategies of public and private suppliers”, Water Policy 9(6), 615-630. [4] Aubin, D. and F. Varone (2004).

The adoption of EU environmental policy has been simultaneous to the progressive devolution of power from the Belgian State to the Regions.

[11] The regional authorities and the federal government coordinate international environmental policy in a “Comité de coordination de la politique internationale de l’environnement (CCPIE) or Coördinatiecomité Internationaal Milieubeleid.”[12] The committee is organized into working groups; one of them concerns water policy. [1] Tabari, Hossein; Taye, Meron Teferi and Patrick Willems (2015) Water availability change in central Belgium for the late 21st century, Global and Planetary Change, 131: 115–123. [15], To meet the WFD’s requirements regarding integrated water management, the three regional governments divided their territories into river basins districts (tributaries): 11 in Flanders, 15 in Wallonia and 2 in Brussels. Belgium is heavily industrialized and experiences many of the environmental problems common to other industrialized nations. In Belgium, drought has highlighted concerns about water stress, pollution, and water resources management that were already in the political agenda. Also in 1965, a “Royal Commissariat on the Water Problem” proposed a plan to ensure urban wastewater treatment in Belgium, which would be the core of legislative proposals adopted in the early 1970s. Moreover, according to the EU Commission (2015 report), the water quality at the Belgian coast was ranked excellent in over two out of three locations (i.e. David Aubin holds a PhD in political science from UCLouvain (2005).

[1] Biodiversity is lower in Flanders than in Wallonia because of population density and fragmentation of habitats, but efforts are being made to boost bio-diversity through connecting fragmented forests and national parks through wildlife crossing "ecoducts" such as in Kikbeek. Belgium’s water resources are distributed among five main river basins (See Map 2).