News item | 13-10-2023 | 4:15 PM
At the proposal of Minister Harbers of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Council of Ministers has approved the nomination for appointment of Mr Co Verdaas as government commissioner for the National Delta Program. Mr Verdaas will start his work as Delta Commissioner at the beginning of December.
Prof. As dike manager of the Rivierenland Water Board and professor of area development at TU Delft, Dr. Co Verdaas (57) has extensive experience with water issues in the Netherlands and a broad network in the spatial domain. As an independent government commissioner, he monitors the progress of the National Delta Program in which governments and knowledge institutions work together with social organizations and companies to protect the Netherlands in the long term against flooding and weather extremes and to ensure sufficient freshwater. Every year on Budget Day, the Delta Commissioner reports on the implementation of the Delta Program and advises the cabinet, solicited and unsolicited, on issues in the field of climate adaptation.
Minister Harbers: “Co Verdaas is an enthusiastic director and scientist. He has a lot of experience with the major challenges caused by the changing climate. For example, I am talking about extreme weather and rising sea levels. I expect that Mr Verdaas will be able to put his experiences as a dike manager and deputy to good use. Like no other, he can connect the spatial challenges in the field of water to the other major challenges that take up our space.”
Mr Verdaas believes it is important that water is not seen as an isolated task and is linked to the tasks for housing construction, (delta) nature and making the economy more sustainable.
“I find it very honorable that as Delta Commissioner I can contribute to a climate-proof future for our delta. Water has shaped the Netherlands and will continue to do so. We have a tradition of protecting against water and an ambition to live with water. Within the Delta Program I am happy to work to establish a good connection between these two.”
Co Verdaas was previously a member of the House of Representatives for the PvdA, deputy of the province of Gelderland and briefly State Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Rutte II cabinet. He studied spatial planning at Radboud University in Nijmegen and obtained his PhD there with the thesis “Plans cannot be planned”, a study into the functioning of the planning system in the Netherlands. In addition to Delta Commissioner, Verdaas will remain part-time professor of area development at TU Delft. He will be the third Delta Commissioner after Wim Kuijken and Peter Glas.