Wallonia´s blue gold

Two hundred days of precipitation per year during which over 0.1 mm falls. A figure that makes some people weep, and brings joy to the hearts of others. Wallonia is rain´s dearest child. To the point that its underground resources provide water for the whole country, Flanders and Brussels included. Its gold, blue and soft, represents capital worth 15 billion m3 per year.

Wallonia has learned how to manage this gift from the sky well. In 10 years, a little under 2 billion euros have been invested and close to 6,000 direct and indirect jobs have been created.

Its drinking water supplies listed and geo-referenced catchment areas (34%), agriculture (25%), industry (10%), drinks bottling (2.5%) and quarries (1%). The rest (0.5%) includes commercial activities, hospitals and services, camp sites, public administrations (excluding distribution) and, of course, individuals whether connected to the distribution system or not. To meet its needs, the Walloon Region has therefore made arrangements to ensure the public treatment of waste water, the protection of potential drinking water supplies, intervention in the operations that go to make up the water cycle and to carry out the studies required to meet European challenges of tomorrow. Among these, the framework directive requires that by 2015 Member States must reach a good status for their surface water, achieve good ecological potential and good chemical status for artificial and highly modified water masses as well as for underground water and ensure compliance with all the standards and objectives drawn up for the protected areas. A major action plan in the light of the Walloon Region´s industrial, and especially mining, past. Today the damage caused to Walloon territory during its time of economic splendour needs to be repaired, while at the same time managing the contemporary economic and domestic activity of its inhabitants.

Many companies have therefore answered the call and are participating in the conservation of this basic heritage required for future generations. Some are involved in the design and construction of pumping stations and waste and drinking water treatment stations. Engineering consultancies specialize in orientation and soil characterization studies, impact studies, studies to do with the protection of catchment area boundaries, hydro-geological studies (tracing tests, modelling, flow, dispersion, distribution, etc.). Companies have also developed a new and effective process for thickening treatment station sludges and for treating dirt from gutters, or are developing amongst other things, eco-toxicity tests beneath surface water aimed at studying the influence of external parameters on various populations of organisms.