Belgium: Wallonia creates a water Tax to finance the aid for water

In Belgium, the Walloon Government on the initiative of Mr. Benoît Lutgen, Minister of the environment, decided to institute a tax of solidarity on each m3 of drinking water distributed in Walloon Area. This will make it possible to strengthen the co-operation with the developing countries in the sector of drinking water and sanitation. The rate of this tax is of 1.25 c€ per m3, which is approximately 1.5 € by household and per annum. It is expected that 2 € million will annually be collected, which constitutes an increase of 10% of the amount that the Walloon Area collects on own capital stocks with the co-operation. This water tax plays a similar role to the tax of solidarity on the plane tickets founded recently to finance drugs (AIDS, etc) for the developing countries. For several years, the Walloon Area had founded internally a tax of solidarity on water to finance the water of the stripped households of Wallonia. The Area of Walonn is the first area of the world to have two obligatory instruments of solidarity to implement the right to water thanks to solidarity between all the users.