About the town » Gemeente Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Gemeente Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Hardinxveld-Giessendam is a municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of 17,828 in 2004, and covers an area of 19.35 km² (7.47 mile²) of which 2.44 km² (0.94 mile²) is water. The municipality of Hardinxveld-Giessendam consists of the two population centres Giessendam/Neder-Hardinxveld and Boven-Hardinxveld. Until they were merged in 1957, Giessendam and Hardinxveld were two municipalities, consisting of only a few streets and dykes and only a few thousand inhabitants. The town's economy is for a large part dependent on ship building (e.g. Damen Shipyards Group) and general contracting. Several industry parks are present.