Soalala is a rural municipality in western

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It belongs to the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of Soalala, which is a part of Boeny Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 15,000 in 2001 commune

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

. Soalala is served by a local

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

and maritime harbour. It also has riverine harbour. Primary and junior level secondary education are available in town. The majority 78% of the population of the commune are farmers. The most important crop is

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

, while other important products are

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

s and

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

. Industry and services provide employment for 5% and 1% of the population, respectively. Additionally fishing employs 16% of the population. There had been several victimes of Cyclone Belna that fell land on 09.12.2019 in Soalala

Economy

* Soalala mine - iron ore * Marine shrimp farming *

Baie de Baly National Park Baie de Baly National Park is a National Park in Madagascar. Geography Baie de Baly National Park or Baly Bay National Park is situated in the region of Boeny, District of Soalala, close to Soalala and Ambohipaky, approximately to the next majo ...

Tsingy de Namoroka Strict Nature Reserve Namoroka National Park, formerly known as Tsingy de Namoroka Strict Nature Reserve, is a national park located in the northwestern part of Madagascar in the Mahajanga Province, specifically, the Soalala District. History Namoroka Strict Na ...

Infra structures

* Soalala Airport *

Thermal power station A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a st ...

of 60 kw.(in French):Thermal station Soalala
/ref> Two additional hydraulic power stations are planned to take up operations in 2021.

References and notes

Populated places in Boeny {{Boeny-geo-stub