The Fight against Industrial and Urban Pollution in the Artois - Picardie Basin

The Artois-Picardie Water Basin is one of the six french water basins whose limits were defined by the 1964 Law on Water. The Water Basin Agency is a public body created to fight against water pollution and to manage water resources; it collects fees from those who pollute and from those who use ground and surface waters and the funds collected are redistributed to industries and local communities that construct sewage networks and purification plants. Thanks to the financial and technical attack launched by the Agency, good results have been achieved. In the field of industry, organic pollution discharged has been reduced to a third with considerable success in several sectors: discharged pollution reduced by 80% in vegetable canning; by 70% in paper plants; by 85% in sugar plants; by 75% in wool-washing plants. The percentage of eliminated pollution coming from communities has progressed from 15% to 35%.