The Ministry of Environment was set up in September 1972 when the government realised that there was a need for a structured ministry to cope with the environmental problems and prevent serious ones arising from the rapid pace of industrialisation in the 1970s. Before the set up of the ENV, public and environmental health services was a unit under the jurisdiction of the City Council and Rural Board before it came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health in 1960.
The role of the Ministry of the Environment is to protect and improve the environment through planning, developing and operating sewerage, drainage and solid waste disposal facilities; controlling of air and water pollution and hazardous substances; provision of environmental public health services; and training and health education.
In 2001, the Public Utilities Board was reconstituted to become a single water authority in Singapore. The drainage and sewerage department from the Ministry of Environment were transferred to the Public Utilities Board, while the Public Utilities Board itself was transferred from the Ministry of Trade and Industry to the Ministry of Environment.
It was renamed as the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) in 2004.
