Rijkswaterstaat, founded in 1798 as the ''Bureau voor den Waterstaat'' and formerly translated to Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management, is a Directorate-General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands. Its role is the practical execution of the public works and water management, including the construction and maintenance of waterways and roads, and flood protection and prevention. The agency was also involved in the construction of big railway projects such as the

Betuweroute The Betuweroute is a double track freight railway between Rotterdam and Germany. is the official name, after the Betuwe area through which the route passes. The line is popularly called Betuwelijn, after an older track in the same region. Th ...

and the

HSL-Zuid The HSL-Zuid ( nl, Hogesnelheidslijn Zuid, en, High-speed Line South), is a 125 kilometre-long (78 miles) Dutch high-speed railway line running between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border, with a branch to Breda, North ...

. The mission of the organisation is: "Rijkswaterstaat is de rijksdienst die werkt aan droge voeten, schoon en voldoende water én aan de vlotte en veilige doorstroming van het verkeer" (Rijkswaterstaat is the national agency that provides dry feet, clean and sufficient water and a quick and safe flow of traffic). The agency is divided in 10 regional, 6 specialist services and 2 special services. As of 15 May 2017, the

director-general A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a government ...

(DG) of Rijkswaterstaat is Michèle Blom. Since 1 January 2006, Rijkswaterstaat has been an (executive) agentschap (agency).

Name

The Dutch word ''waterstaat'' denotes the condition of an area in relation to the level and the condition of surface and groundwater, including all relevant natural and artificial features. The component ' rijks' translates as 'national'.

Organization structure

Rijkswaterstaat is divided in regional and specialist services, formerly known as ''directies''. Every service is managed by a hoofdingenieur-directeur (HID), who together form the board of Rijkswaterstaat.

Regional services

Rijkswaterstaat emergency car, Winschoten (2017)

The regions are divided in local ''water- en wegendistricten'' (water and road districts), formerly known as ''dienstkringen''. In the past, every province had its own regional organisation, but the directies Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe were merged, forming the service Noord-Nederland, the directies Overijssel and Gelderland were merged to form the service Oost-Nederland, the directies IJsselmeergebied and Utrecht were merged to form the service Midden-Nederland and the directies Noord-Brabant and Limburg were merged to form the service Zuid-Nederland. The following regional services exist: * RWS Noord-Nederland (located in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

) * RWS West Nederland Noord (located in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

) * RWS Midden-Nederland (located in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

) *

RWS Oost-Nederland The three-letter abbreviation RWS may stand for: Businesses and organizations *Ravens Wood School, Keston, London Borough of Bromley, England *Royal Watercolour Society, an English institution of painters working in watercolours * Running with Scis ...

(located in

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both banks of ...

) *

RWS West Nederland Zuid The three-letter abbreviation RWS may stand for: Businesses and organizations *Ravens Wood School, Keston, London Borough of Bromley, England *Royal Watercolour Society, an English institution of painters working in watercolours *Running with Sciss ...

(located in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

) *

RWS Zee en Delta The three-letter abbreviation RWS may stand for: Businesses and organizations *Ravens Wood School, Keston, London Borough of Bromley, England *Royal Watercolour Society, an English institution of painters working in watercolours * Running with Scis ...

(located in

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

) *

RWS Zuid-Nederland The three-letter abbreviation RWS may stand for: Businesses and organizations *Ravens Wood School, Keston, London Borough of Bromley, England *Royal Watercolour Society, an English institution of painters working in watercolours * Running with Scis ...

(located in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

and

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

)

Specialist Services

* Water, Traffic and Environment, RWS WVL (located in

Rijswijk Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also includes th ...

and

) * Programmes, Projects and Maintenance, RWS PPO (located in

) * Major Projects and Maintenance, RWS GPO (located in

) * Traffic- and Water Management, RWS VWM (located in

and

) * Central Information Services, RWS CIV (located in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

) * Centre for Corporate services, RWS CD (located in

)
Nova
RWS nova (located in

)

Project Directorates (Special Services)

* Room for the River, RWS RVR (located in

)

Former (specialist) services

* Projectdirectie Maaswerken, Tomorrow's

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

(located in

and

Roermond Roermond (; li, Remunj or ) is a city, municipality, and diocese in the Limburg province of the Netherlands. Roermond is a historically important town on the lower Roer on the east bank of the river Meuse. It received town rights in 1231. Roer ...

). 2003 - 2010 * Projectdirectie

, High Speed Line South (located in

Zoetermeer Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2013 this had grown to 123,328 ...

). 2001 - 2009 * Waterstaatskerken * Deltadienst * Rijksdienst voor de IJsselmeerpolders, National Institute for

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

s in the

IJsselmeer The IJsselmeer (; fy, Iselmar, nds-nl, Iesselmeer), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed off inland bay in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of with an a ...

* Rijksinstituut voor Kust en Zee, National Institute for the Coast and Sea (located in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

) * Rijksinstituut voor Integraal Zoetwaterbeheer en Afvalwaterbehandeling, National Institute for integral Fresh Water management and Waste Treatment (located in

) * Dienst voor Weg en Waterbouwkunde, Service for Road- and Waterarchitecture (located in

) * Adviesdienst Verkeer en Vervoer, Advisory service Traffic and Transport (located in

)

Notable employees

Elze van den Ban

Related Dutch institutes

*Deltares *

Kadaster Kadaster is the name designation of the Dutch Cadastre, Land Registry and national mapping agency in the Netherlands. The word ''Kadaster'' comes from the medieval Latin ''catastrum'', descended from either the Greek καταστιχον (kata ac ...

nsgi.nl
/ref>

References

External links

Official website www.rijkswaterstaat.nlRijkswaterstaat as an agencyRijkswaterstaat organizational overview
{{authority control Government agencies of the Netherlands Dutch words and phrases Water management authorities in the Netherlands Inland waterway authorities Road authorities Transport organisations based in the Netherlands