Summary
People whose lands are required for
the project will be resettled as per
the Resettlement Action Plan.
Depending on livelihood resources
that are affected by the project,
additional people may or may not be
resettled. There are alternatives that
may be preferable, including
replacing that portion of livelihood
resources affected with alternative
resources. This could include compensation and/or employment. At
present, two households will be fully resettled at the plant site, with
additional compensation being developed for 25 households.
Access to natural
resources
Settlements near the plant site
It is not expected that migration can be limited to such an extent that
additional pressures on not only services, but also goods and land, can
be fully mitigated. In the interest of original residents and of any
migrants, flexibility in the response to migration is necessary. The
proponent alone cannot address in-migration and urbanization issues in
the Toamasina area. It is the project’s intention to supplement mitigation
and benefit enhancement measures directed at specific project impacts
with participation in additional community development efforts. The
approach will be to partner with government, NGO and community
groups to support interventions to address the effects associated with
induced urbanization.
Social services and
infrastructure
The project itself will make few demands on services and infrastructure,
in so far as out-of-country workers will be housed at camps where all
their service requirements will be met. As well, the project will
have independent systems for power, water, communications etc.
Improvements to transportation infrastructure associated with the project,
including roads, the port and the railway, will strengthen the capacity of
Toamasina to serve as a full-service transportation node relative to other
Madagascar alternatives.
Attention to the potential for increasing the incidence of HIV/AIDS is
particularly critical, especially at the plant site given that the incidence in
the Toamasina area is suspected of being higher than in Madagascar
generally. Movement of workers and migrants into the area as a result
of the project could contribute to increasing the incidence of HIV/AIDS.
To mitigate this potential impact, vigorous codes of behaviour and
aggressive HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs for the
workforce will be implemented at the plant site, in line with practices at
the mine site.
Wellbeing
As described for the mine site, the project represents a significant force
of socioeconomic change. The potential of the project to generate such
change is greater than at the mine site, given the size of the plant facility
and the expected employment it is to generate locally. The project
intends to participate in this transformation as a positive force,
January 2006
Ambatovy Project — 32
