The implementation of a resettlement plan involves many components including:
- gaining access to the land earmarked for development, and compensating those whose assets will be affected. This component requires that surveys be conducted to determine what assets people residing on the land have, prior to their relocation; reaching an agreement with those who will be moved or whose assets will be affected; and compensating those who will be affected and/ or moved;
- construction of replacement housing and relocating physically displaced households to the replacement housing; and
- re-establishment and development of livelihoods of affected households.
To facilitate the relocation of physically displaced households, the project is building a replacement village known as Quitunda. The construction of Quitunda occurs in three phases. Phase 1 involved the construction of the public infrastructure service and utilities of the new village and new houses for households and hamlets scheduled to be relocated as part of Phase 1. Phase 2 and Phase 3 – which is currently in process - involve ongoing construction of replacement housing. By July 2019, construction of Phase 1 was completed.
Quitunda village has a wide range of public infrastructure including an administrative complex for the Administrative Post of Palma, a police station, a health clinic, a primary school, a community centre, a children’s playground, a health clinic, a central market place and a bus stop. The village is connected to the main electricity supply and a gravity-fed water storage tank helps deliver water to each house.
The physical relocation process of households comprises three distinct phases – pre-move preparation; the move day; and post-move follow-up.
A key part of pre-move preparation is the implementation of a social preparation program whereby individual households visit their new house, the new village and generally become acquainted with their new living environment. Through this process, family members have a first-hand introductory experience of the layout of the house and garden, the rooms and kitchen, the latrines, the delivery of electricity and water, etc.
As the day of the move approaches, the relocation team delivers a “welcome basket” and a food basket to the houses. The “welcome pack” comprises various household goods and the food basket provisions for 3 months. Meanwhile, a health team visits the families and conducts home visits to confirm the health of each family and identify where special assistance might be required. Another team that focuses on packing of household possessions, including livestock, visits each family to deliver packing material and discuss each individual family’s relocation plan. Arrangements are also made to transfer the registration of children from their primary school to the new school in Quitunda. On the day of the actual move the family is picked up by a bus and transported to their new house in Quitunda Village. Separately, household possessions are loaded onto a truck, transported to Quitunda Village and unloaded. After arrival various documents effecting the transfer of the house to the head of household are finalised.
After the relocation day, the stakeholder engagement and resettlement teams continue to visit each family on a regular basis, are available to answer questions, and ensure that the household is settling in well. These teams also facilitate the process of increasingly turning the family’s attention to livelihood re-establishment and development.
In this way, while the delivery of a replacement house and indeed relocation is an event, its success is dependent on well-defined plans and activities working with the physically-displaced households.
From July – December 2019, the Project relocated 186 families, comprising a total of 1024 people, to Quitunda. When complete, the village will have approximately 660 houses and 3,000 people will be resident in the village.
