Another 100 mostly small municipalities provide services directly without having a legally of financially separate entity for water supply.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[11] Before World War II, Belgian policymakers focused on drinking water supply with little emphasis on sanitation.

The territory of the companies corresponded to three water basins (the Coast, Meuse and Scheldt), and not to the three Belgian regions.

The SNDE breaks apart in the early 1980s, splitting into the Société Wallonne des Distributions d'Eau (SWDE) renamed Société wallonne des eaux [fr] and the Vlaamse Maatschappij voor Watervoorziening (VMW), renamed De Watergroep[12] 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).

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.

The Brussels-South wastewater treatment plant, situated between Anderlecht and Forest, came into service in July 2000.

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.

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,[17] 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.

Another 100 mostly small municipalities provide services directly without having a legally of financially separate entity for water supply.

Its mission is to design, finance, build and operate all supramunicipal infrastructure needed to treat domestic wastewater and to optimise all main sewer and sewage treatment plants which Aquafin took over from the Flemish Environmental Agency.

[20] The private British water company Severn Trent held a 20% minority share in Aquafin until it was sold to the Flemish government in 2006.

[21] The Société wallonne des eaux (called SWDE after its former name Société Wallonne des Distributions d'Eau) is the most important water service provider in Wallonia with about 960,000 connections and 2.4 million clients in 200 municipalities, providing water to about 70% of the population of Wallonia.

[26] The former Compagnie Intercommunale Bruxelloise des Eaux (CIBE), renamed Vivaqua in 2006, sells bulk water to the city of Brussels.

It also operates its sewer network and the Brussels-South wastewater treatment plant on behalf of IBDE.

Vivaqua also provides services to other municipalities and intermunicipal associations in both Flanders and Wallonia with a total of 309,000 connections and 2.1 million direct and indirect clients.

[27][28][29] BELGAQUA is the Belgian federation for the water and sanitation sector representing its member utilities.

Although PIDPA (in the Flemisch Region, the Antwerp Campine (de Kempen in Dutch)) has changed this in 2009.

The increasing-block tariff has also four blocks, the highest beginning at 60 cubic meter per person per year.

The Walloon region has established a public company dedicated to the financing and operation of sanitation infrastructure and watershed protection.

In Flanders, the public company Aquafin is a major financier of sanitation and also benefits from long-term lending provided by the EIB.