Agona West Municipal Assembly
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AGONA WEST MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY 2015 ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT (APR) COMPILED BY: MUNICIPAL PLANNING COORDINATING UNIT (MPCU) FEBRUARY, 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page District Profile 2 - 13 M & E Activities Report Update on Core Municipal Indications & Targets 14 - 17 Update on Disbursements from Funding Sources 17 - 19 Update on Critical Development and Poverty Issues 19 - 24 Programme/Projects status for the Year 2015 25 1 1. DISTRICT PROFILE 1.1 Establishment Agona West Municipal Assembly (AWMA) was created out of the former Agona District Assembly (ADA) on 25th February, 2008 by LI 1920. AWMA is one of the twenty (20) political and administrative districts in the Central Region of Ghana. AWMA has 1 Urban Council – Nyarkrom Urban Council (LI 1967) and 5 Zonal Councils. 1.2 Vision and Mission Statement 1.2.1 Vision To become a well-developed Municipal Assembly that provides and facilitates excellent services to its people to ensure improvement in the quality of life of its people. 1.2.2 Mission Statement The Agona West Municipal Assembly exists to facilitate the improvement in the quality of life of the people in close collaboration with the private sector and other development partners in the Municipality through the mobilization and the judicious use of resources and provision of Basic Socio-Economic Development within the context of Good Governance. 1.3 Physical Characteristics 1.3.1 Location and Size Agona West is situated in the eastern corner of the Central Region within latitudes 5030’ and 5050’N and between longitudes 0035’ and 0055’W.cIt has a total land area of 447 square kilometers. The Municipality is divided into six (6) sub-districts or Town/Area Councils. The Municipality is bordered to the North by Agona East, to the South by Gomoa East and to the Northwest and West by Asikuma, Odoben, Brakwa and Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Districts (Map 2). The Municipal capital, Swedru, is at a nodal point of roads radiating to the rich cocoa growing areas of the Central Region. Swedru is approximately twenty-four kilometers North of Winneba. Map 1: Municipality in National Context Map 2: Agona West in Regional Context Source: 4-Year Integrated MTDP (2014-2017) Source: 4-Year Integrated MTDP (2014-2017) 2 1.3.2 Relief and Drainage Agona West has a diversified relief with altitudes varying between 75-150 meters above sea level with the highest point being 350 meters. Agona West has undulating and sloppy topography from north to south with isolated hillocks in the north- east, most of which are made up of granite rocks. The main river which primarily drains through the Municipality is Akora River. There are other small rivers like Abena, and Enchiwi, which could be useful for purposes of irrigation. 1.3.3 Soil and Land Use The major soil type found in the Municipality is classified as Forest ochrosols. These soils are alkaline and richly supplied with nutrients which make them suitable for cultivating varied agricultural produce like cocoa, citrus and coconut. Typical forest food crops like plantain, banana, cassava, cocoyam and maize. Vegetable and sugar cane cultivation is widespread. Agriculture occupies most of the land use; however, certain areas are devoted to forestry and community settlements. 1.3.4 Climate and Vegetation Generally, the Municipality lies in the wet semi-equatorial climate zone. It has two main crop growing seasons: a bio-modal pattern of rainfall with the maxima occurring in May/June and September/October. The annual rainfall figure lies within the range of 1000mm – 1400mm. The dry season starts in December and ends in March with the highest mean monthly temperature of 33.80 occurring between March/April and the lowest of about 29.40 C in August. The area falls within the moist tropical and semi-deciduous forest with a lot of valuable timber trees like mahogany, sapele, silk cotton, wawa and odum. Due to over logging, most of the timber trees are no more. The most predominant and giant tree left is the silk cotton. The recent award of concessions for the harvesting of this tree poses the greatest ecological danger to the environment. Afforestation, particularly the cultivation of teak and other forest trees would become very important economic ventures in future. 1.4 Demographic characteristics 1.4.1 Population According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, the Agona West Municipality has an estimated total population of 115,358 with female slightly dominating at an estimated population of 61, 199 while male population was estimated at 54,159. The population of the major settlements in the Municipality is shown in Figure 1. 3 Table 1: Population of Major Settlements in the Municipality S/N SETTLEMENT POPULATION 1. Swedru 55,239 2. Nyakrom 18,666 3. Bobikuma 7,980 4. Abodom 6,576 5. Kwaman 3,846 6. Nkum 3,073 7. Wawase 1,588 8. Otsenkorang 1,076 9. Adukori 891 10. Oteprow 878 11. Ahomadonko 745 12. Odomu 736 13. Dadzie 735 14. Nkwantanando 729 15. Kukurantumi 599 16. Bosompa 600 17. Jukwafum 510 18. Amponsahkrom 506 19. Nkranfo 485 20. Nsonan 467 Source: 2010 Population and Housing Census 1.4.2 Population Size and Growth Rates The population growth rate was 2.656% in 1984. About 40% of the populace were children. In 1960, the population of the area forming the current Agona District was 82,607 and growing at an annual rate of 0.6% it reached 87,446 in 1970 and by 1984 the total population was 122,631 showing an annual growth rate of 2.66% between 1970 and 1984(source: 1996-2000 Medium 4 Term Development Plan page 14). With the current (2010) population estimated at 115358. The annual growth rate between 2000 and 2010 is 2.8 per annum The Agona Municipality growth rate of 2.8% is higher than both the national and regional growth rates of 2.5% and 3.1% respectively. The above picture shows that the Municipality is experiencing a continual rise in the growth rate as it has shown a rise from 0.6% in 1960 to the present rate of 2.8%. The rapid increase is more importantly the result of both high birth rate and a considerably reduction in mortality as well as high in-migration rate. Though these are encouraging, the increasing population in the Municipality will place a growing strain on the municipality’s resources and create serious problems for the Municipal Assembly in particular and the central government in general. 1.4.3 Age-Sex Structure of Population The age and sex structure of the Municipal population shows that the population is predominantly female (53.1%), with males forming about 46.9%. 1.5 Economic and Occupational Characteristics The resource base of the Municipality is determined by the natural resources of the area. This has made the Municipality economy predominantly agricultural oriented. The climate, soil and labour base of the Municipality is agricultural biased. As a result of this, all the products of the Municipality are mainly agriculture outputs. Cash crop production dominates all farming activities of the Municipality e.g. cocoa, citrus, oil palm and coconut. There are a few deposits of clay and gold but not to support commercial production and exploitation. Agriculture is the major economic activity in Agona West and engages more than 64% of the Municipal population. 1.6 Health Status Some of the health hazards are principally malaria and gastro intestinal diseases. HIV/AIDS is slowly rearing its head in the Municipality. Programmes would actively be undertaken to control this current health hazard. The approach would be similar to the national policy to reduce the pandemic. The top ten (10) diseases and their number of reported cases are as indicated in Table 2. Table 2: Top 10 Diseases in the Municipality S/N DISEASE NUMBER OF REPORTED CASES 1. Malaria 11,544 2. Upper Respiratory Tract Infections 11,963 3. Anaemia 4,989 4. Diarrhoea Diseases 2,963 5. Acute Eye Infection 3,175 6. Skin Diseases 1,926 7. Acute Urinary Tract Infection 1,798 5 8. Hypertension 1,829 9. Rheumatism and Other Join Pains 1,703 10. Intestinal Worm 1,696 Source: Municipal Health Directorate, 2015 Table 3: Health Indicators INDICATORS 2012 2013 2014 2015 OPD Attendance 79,966 89,825 108,434 154,212 Under 5 Death 60 46 41 48 Total Death 414 350 315 326 Total Admissions 12,503 11,785 12,622 11,869 Insured Patient 57,929 63,949 88,277 133,374 Non-Insured 22,637 25,876 20,157 20,838 Source: Municipal Health Directorate, 2015 1.7 Education There has been an increase in enrolment in Basic Schools in the Municipality. The general increase in enrolment in response to Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education has been tremendous. Reasons for the increase in enrolment of school going age pupils could be based on the following interventions. Improvement in infrastructure like public buildings and furniture through Social Investment Fund (SIF), Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and European Union (EU). Improvement in water and sanitation facilities in public schools through Community Water Sanitation Agency (CWSA) The introduction of the capitation grant The challenges of education in the Municipality are: Reforms Management and School Information Improvement; Teacher development, deployment and supervision; Special partnership programmes with non-state actors. 6 1.8 Environmental Situation Poor waste disposal situation in the Agona West Municipality has been caused by inefficient and inadequate infrastructure facilities, especially insufficient drainage and toilet facilities. In some of the communities, refuse disposal points have become terminals for open defecation. The pile of refuse grows into unsightly mountains because the Municipal Assembly is unable to cope with the problem.