science

Veolia Water

Veolia Water is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Veolia Water rather than just read about it. In short: Veolia Water (formerly Vivendi Water, originally Compagnie Générale des Eaux) is the water division of the French company Veolia Environnement and a major supplier of water services. History On December 14, 1853, the creation of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux was authorized by imperial decree as a public limited company with a capital of 20 million.

Key takeaways

Veolia Water belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Veolia Water to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Veolia Water from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Veolia Water (formerly Vivendi Water, originally Compagnie Générale des Eaux) is the water division of the French company Veolia Environnement and a major supplier of water services.

History On December 14, 1853, the creation of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux was authorized by imperial decree as a public limited company with a capital of 20 million. In 1889, its first research laboratory was established at 52, rue d’Anjou in Paris, France. Veolia Water’s headquarters are still located at this site. 1918 saw the creation of the SADE (Société Auxiliaire des Distributions d'Eau), specializing in water networks and the delivery of drinking water. In 1953, construction began on a CGE water treatment facility at Clay Lane, near London; by 2001, it was one of the world’s largest ultrafiltration plants, supplying water to 750,000 people in the city. Veolia Water established the Waterforce emergency response team in 1998, prompted by Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua and the flooding of the Yangtze River in China. In 1980, CGE expanded into other businesses such as transport and energy services by acquiring other companies. The original CGE water industry remained as the water division of CGE. In 1998, CGE was renamed Vivendi, and in 1999, the environmental divisions of CGE was consolidated under Vivendi Environnement, with the water division renamed Vivendi Water in 1999. In 2003, Vivendi Environnement was renamed Veolia Environnement. Two years later in 2005, Veolia Environnement united its four global divisions (Environmental Services, Energy, Transport and Water) under the Veolia brand. Vivendi Water thus was renamed Veolia Water. In 2002, Vivendi Water began providing municipal water services in 2002 to major cities such as Indianapolis (USA), Bucharest (Romania), Berlin (Germany) and Shanghai (China). The UK water supply businesses branded as Veolia Water were sold by Veolia Environnement for £1.2 billion on 28 June 2012 to Rift Acquisitions, an entity established by Morgan Stanley and M&G Investments. Veolia Environnement is using the proceeds of the disposal to reduce its debt, as part of a 5bn-euro debt-reduction programme announced in December 2011 and will retain a 10% stake in the new business Affinity Water for at least five years. Affinity Water began operations on 1 October 2012.

Subsidiaries Veolia Water’s subsidiaries include:

SADE, which to builds and maintains water mains and water networks for delivering and distributing drinking water, and processing waste water, subsequently divested to NGE in 2024. Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies. In 2025 Veolia acquired a 30% stake owned by CDPX, giving Veolia full ownership of the subsidiary. Krüger A/S, Denmark (Annual revenue €177,000,000 (2008)) Veolia Water also has joint subsidiaries with other Veolia divisions. With Dalkia, it has Proxiserve. This subsidiary provides home-based services related to heating and water distribution systems. With Veolia Environmental Services, it has SEDE Environnement (management of waste sludge) and SIDEF (Services to Industry for the Treatment of Effluent).

In the media

References

External links Veolia Water website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Veolia Water

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Veolia Water claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Veolia Water before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Veolia Water ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Veolia Water

In research: Veolia Water appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Veolia Water in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Veolia Water is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Food and drink companies established in 1853, French companies established in 1853, Veolia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Veolia Water outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Veolia Water in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Veolia Water means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Veolia Water out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Veolia Water in simple terms?

Veolia Water (formerly Vivendi Water, originally Compagnie Générale des Eaux) is the water division of the French company Veolia Environnement and a major supplier of water services. History On December 14, 1853, the creation of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux was authorized by imperial decree as a…

Why does Veolia Water matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Veolia Water?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Veolia Water.