Nature with its environmental agency in Flanders, 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. The Federal Government has only a very limited role in water supply and sanitation. Service provision The 589 municipalities of Belgium (308 in the Flemish region with 6.2 million inhabitants, 262 in the Walloon region with 3.4 million inhabitants and 19 in Brussels with 1.1 million inhabitants) are responsible for providing drinking water and sanitation services. However, most municipalities have delegated this task to regional or inter-municipal water or sanitation companies. In total, according to one source there were 72 water supply companies in Belgium in 2005. However, another source indicates that there were more than about 62 water supply companies, including 2 regional companies, 30 inter-municipal utilities and 30 municipal utilities. Another 100 mostly small municipalities provide services directly without having a legally of financially separate entity for water supply. Flanders De Watergroep (formerly Vlaamse Maatschappij voor Watervoorziening, VMW) is the regional water company in Flanders providing water and sewer services to 2.6 million clients in 170 municipalities. Water-link (formerly Antwerp Water Works, Antwerpse Waterwerken, AWW) is the provider of drinking water to 7 municipalities in the Antwerp region - Antwerp, Mortsel, Boechout, Edegem, Kontich, Hove, Zwijndrecht and Kapellen - and (formerly TMVW) is the service provider in 67 municipalities in the Gent region. Aquafin is a regional wastewater treatment company in Flanders. It was established in 1990 by the Flemish government, which is also its major shareholder. 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. The private British water company Severn Trent held a 20% minority share in Aquafin until it was sold to the Flemish government in 2006. Wallonia 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. SWDE does not provide sanitation services. Besides SWDE there are seven intermunicipal water utilities in Wallonia: AIEC - Association Intercommunale des Eaux du Condroz AIEM - Association Intercommunale des Eaux de la CIESAC