Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment

From ClimateWiki

The Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment is a Dutch ministry created in 2010 by the Rutte Cabinet, and is a merger of the former Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management and Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment.

The minister is Melanie Schultz van Haegen, who took office on 14 October 2010. The State Secretary is Joop Atsma.

Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management

Dutch ministry responsible for the Dutch system of water management, public and private transport and infrastructure.

The motto of the ministry was: "familiar with water, progressive with connections".

The ministry had two main responsibilities:

Regulation and management of transport of people and goods via roads, trains, boats and airplanes

Water management by water works, such as dikes, polders and channels

Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment

Ministry that was responsible for policies on public housing, spatial planning, the environment and the housing of national government agencies.

The Ministry was established as the ministry of Reconstruction and Public Housing in 1947, to coordinate the reconstruction of the Netherlands after the Second World War. Its main goal in this period was to build enough housing.

In 1958 the ministry was renamed Public Housing and Construction Industry.

In the 1965 the ministry was renamed Public Housing and Spatial Planning. Spatial planning and land management became more important. The high level of population growth in the densely populated Netherlands made centralized coordination of land use necessary. The ministry began to publish coordinate the land use policies of provinces and municipalities. Urban renewal also became an important issue for the ministry.

In 1982 the ministry was renamed Public Housing and Spatial Planning and the Environment. The environment has previously been a part of the portfolio of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. With rising environmental consciousness the environment became the most important issue for the ministry. The ministry also bears responsibility for international environmental policy.