Legislation

History of the statutory and legal frame
In the past, for the whole of Belgium, only the following was forbidden by the law of 11 March 1950 (abrogated in 1971) which states in article 3: “no authorisation is necessary for pouring out natural and household water, for other liquid waste, the pouring out requires a preliminary authorisation by the college of deputy burgomasters or the technical civil servant of the liquid waste purification office”.
On that basis, trucks of private companies and some communal entities have taken the habit of pouring out collected waste preferably on places which were destined to dumps or in public collectors, without too much reaction from the above-mentioned authorities and without realizing the damage that could be caused to the environment after some time.
On the other hand, the 26 March 1971 law on the protection of surface water states in article 5 : “the authorisation for pouring out liquid waste other than the usual household waste; in the public sewerage system and/or in the water of the public hydrographical network is delivered by the director of the water company of the place where the pouring out occurs.”
Article 8 defined 3 water purification companies, namely :
  • the water purification company of the coastal basin,
  • the water purification company of the Scheldt basin and
  • the water purification company of the Maas, the Seine and the Rhine basin.
The district of each of these companies was determined by the royal decree of 26 July 1972.
The water purification company of the coastal basin became operational in 1975. It was a.o. competent for the provinces of Brabant and Brussels
On the other hand, the Vlaamse Waterzuiveringsmaatschappij (Flemish water purification company) which was founded through the 23 December 1980 decree is not competent anymore for Walloon Brabant or the region of Brussels.
We had to wait for the decree of 16 June 1982 before the passing on of national competencies was organised in the Walloon region concerning surface water. This decree was completed with the decree of 7 October 1985 on the protection of surface water, the “COOLS” decrees of 1990 concerning the protecting and the exploitation of drinkable water and the introduction of a tax on pouring out industrial and household liquid waste. This decree lead to the existence of the Decree of the Walloon regional executive of 22 September 1990 who determines the approval rules of septic tank emptiers.
The Brussels region shall have to wait for the 16 June 1989 law concerning different institutional reforms to obtain the transfer of the competencies of the 1971 law.
From 30 April 1982 to 16 June 1989, the Brussels region was in a legal void. In 1989, the Brussels Institute for Management of the Environment (IBGE) actually renamed Brussels Environment.
The different law texts in the 3 regions can easily be found through the following links :

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