upright=1.35|thumb|Map of municipality of Overbetuwe, June 2015

Overbetuwe () is a municipality in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 January 2001 as a merger of three former municipalities: Elst, Heteren and Valburg. Overbetuwe is bordered in the north by the river Rhine and in the south by the river Waal. The town hall is located in Elst, the largest town in the municipality. Since 2021 it has been part of the Arnhem-Nijmegen Green Metropolitan Region (, which aids planning and development in the region's eighteen municipalities.

Towns

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Town

! Inhabitants (2015)

|-

| Andelst || 1650

|-

| Driel || 4205

|-

| Elst || 21554

|-

| Hemmen || 184

|-

| Herveld || 3015

|-

| Heteren || 5109

|-

| Homoet || 76

|-

| Loenen || 47

|-

| Oosterhout (partly) || 2337

|-

| Randwijk || 1435

|-

| Slijk-Ewijk || 479

|-

| Valburg || 1780

|-

| Zetten || 5002

|}

Transportation

Because of its central location between the cities of Nijmegen and Arnhem, many inhabitants of Overbetuwe commute to these cities. Three major highways are situated in the municipality; the A50, A15 and A325. Overbetuwe has two railway stations: Elst and Zetten-Andelst. A freight line called the Betuweroute, operational since 2007, crosses the area.

Politics

The gemeenteraad (local council) of Overbetuwe consists of 29 seats. Below is the composition of the council since 2000:

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan="16"|Gemeenteraadszetels

|-

|Party||2000||2006||2010||2014 ||2018||2022

|-

|CDA||7||7||7||13||9||7

|-

|PvdA||3||6||4||1||2||1

|-

|D66||4||3||5||5||4||3

|-

|VVD||3||3||5||2||3||3

|-

|Gemeentebelangen||-||5||5||4||4||8

|-

|GroenLinks||2||2||2||2||4||3

|-

|ChristenUnie||1||1||1||1||1||1

|-

|Over-Betuwe Lokaal*||3||-||-||-||-||-

|-

|Dorpslijst Elst*||2||-||-||-||-||-

|-

|Burgerbelangen Overbetuwe||-||-||-||1||2||3

|-

|Total||27||27||29||29||29||29

|}

<gallery mode="packed">

File:Elst, de Grote Kerk RM14948 IMG 3983 2018-06-06 08.56.jpg|Elst, church

File:Zetten, de Dorpskerk RM36731 IMG 8462 2021-03-24 09.29.jpg|Zetten, Village Church

File:Andelst, de Hervormde Dorpskerk RM36730 IMG 8471 2021-03-24 09.57.jpg|Andelst, reformed church

File:2007-03-08 16.41 Driel, zicht op de Rijn foto1.JPG|Driel, river Rhine

File:Elst, viaduct over de spoorlijn bij de weg naar Arnhem IMG 8742 2021-04-01 20.04.jpg|Near Elst, river Linge

File:Tussen Slijk-Ewijk en Andelst, de Waal vanaf de Waaldijk aan het eind van hoog water IMG 9905 2021-07-22 19.47.jpg|Near Slijk-Ewijk, the Waal during flood (summer 2021)

File:Heteren, boerderij aan de Muskushouwstraat IMG 8456 2021-03-24 09.00.jpg|Heteren, farmhouse along the Linge

</gallery>

Notable people

140px|thumb|H.P.G. Quack, 1899

  • Johan Derksen (born 1949 in Heteren) sports journalist and former football player
  • Pierre Kartner (1935 in Elst – 2022) musician, singer-songwriter and record producer
  • Frits Kuipers (1899 in Lent – 1943) footballer and bronze medallist at the 1920 Summer Olympics
  • Paul Kuypers (1939 in Elst – 1971) agriculture expert in Ierapetra, Crete
  • Loiza Lamers (born 1995 in Driel) transgender model
  • Jeffrey Leiwakabessy (born 1981 in Elst) former professional footballer with 403 club caps
  • Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack (1834 in Zetten – 1917) legal scholar, economist and historian
  • Pieter Rijke (1812 in Hemmen – 1899) physicist, invented the Rijke tube
  • Jan Zwartkruis (1926 in Elst – 2013) manager of the Netherlands national football team 1976/77 & 1978/81

References

  • Official website