Ahanta West District Assembly
The Ahanta West District is located along the southern coast of Ghana. Formerly under the jurisdiction of the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly, now Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, the Ahanta West District formed its own autonomous district and government in 1988 as per L.I 1395.
The District capital is Agona Nkwanta, a town centrally located within the District. The district has 123 settlements. Ethnic composition in the District is quite homogeneous with Ahanta as the dominant group. Other major ethnic groupings are Fanti, Nzema, Wassa and Ewe. The Ahanta West District has three Traditional Councils namely: Busua, Lower Dixcove and Upper Dixcove Traditional Council.
Administratively, the District has six (6) Area Councils namely; Agona, Apowa, Abura, Busua, Dixcove and Ewusiejoe. The District has 36 elected Assembly members and 16 Appointees. The total representation is made up of 51 males and 3 females, the Member of Parliament and the District Chief Executive inclusive. The District covers a land area of 591km2, which is approximately 2.47% of the total land area of Western Region. It shares boundaries with Nzema East Municipal to the west, Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal & Mpohor District on the north, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly to the east and the Gulf of Guinea to the south.
Mission Statement
The Ahanta West District Assembly exists to improve the quality of life of the people in the district by efficiently and effectively mobilizing our human and material resources with our development partners for socio economic development and growth.
Vision
The Ahanta West District wishes to be the most efficient, effective and the best district in Ghana in terms of the provision of social amenities and resources for the socio-economic development of its people.
Demography
The district is endowed with considerable natural resources, which gives it a significant economic importance within the context of national development. It is one of the largest producers of rubber and oil palm in the region. A wide variety of minerals, including oil, gold and quarry stones are either being exploited or are potentially exploitable. The district’s total mineral potentials are yet to be fully exploited.
District Assembly Economy
Road
The total length of roads in the district is about 200 kilometers, comprising of 80-kilometre stretch of trunk roads and 120 kilometers of feeder roads. The trunk road traverses the district in an East-West direction and forms part of the Trans-African Highway. The trunk road which stretches from Apowa to Anyaano is under construction. The condition of feeder roads in the district is mixed with 70 per cent as good, 20 per cent as fair and 10 per cent as poor.
Sanitation
Currently, out of the 123 communities in the Ahanta West District, only 5 communities, namely; Agona-fie, Agona Nkwanta, Apowa and Dixcove are provided with 14 skip containers. Crude dumping is carried out in all the 123 communities. The district has about 250 dumping sites but only 14 of these sites are approved. The District has only one final disposal site for solid waste at Damtse in Agona Nkwanta.
Toilet facilities in the district are as follows; 43 percent served with VIP, 38.5 percent using flush toilet. The pit latrine is the major mode of human waste disposal beside the KVIP.
Energy
The District has had its fair share of the national grid connection project. As of the end of the implementation of the GPRS II, more than 50 percent out of the 123 communities were connected to the national grid. Currently the remaining 60 communities are being connected to the national grid. Out of this figure, 15 communities have had their transformers installed and ten (10) communities was already connected as at December, 2013. The provision of electricity would facilitate local economic development as well as serving as catalyst for reducing poverty levels in such communities.
Education
Tourism
The District has attractive seashores, historical monuments, fishing villages, primeval forests giving it the potential for tourism. Notable among these are: Busua Beach Resort, River delta at Seacoast village of Pumponie, Wooded beach near Dixcove, “icon” lighthouse at the farthest point in Ghana, Cape Three Points. Out of the eight forts and fotress in the region, four of them are situated in the district.
health
The goal of the district is to improve access to quality maternal, child and adolescent health services; intensify prevention and control of non-communicable and communicable diseases among others. It also seeks to improve maternal mortality rates, reduce child mortality rate, combat HIV and AIDS and other diseases.
The district has 1 public hospital located at Dixcove, 4 health centres, 3 clinics and 12 CHPS compounds. There are also 100 outreach points and a number of drug stores that are highly patronized by members of the community. The proximity of the district to Takoradi enables many inhabitants, particularly those living in Apowa, New Amanful and Funkoe, to patronize health facilities in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.
The district has 1 doctor and about 103 nurses, which results in a high doctor/patient ratio. The problem confronting the health sector is not only inadequate health facilities, but also inadequate personnel who are reluctant to accept postings to remote areas without facilities, medicines and medical equipment.
Over the period, malaria continues to be the leading cause of out-patient morbidity and admission. Institutional mortality due to malaria has been drastically reduced and no longer in the top ten cause of deaths in the year under review due to an improvement in its corresponding indicators as a result of intensification of malaria control interventions.
Water
Sustainable access to basic facilities such as safe water and basic sanitation by the majority of the population are the main concerns of the seventh Millennium Development Goal (Ensuring environmental sustainability).
Boreholes remain one of the major sources of drinking water for the people of Ahanta West. Others also hand-dug wells as well as pipe-borne water for their household work. The district has 170 boreholes, 17 hand-dug wells fitted with pumps, 3 small town water system, and 5 pipe systems as well as over 500 unprotected wells. The total population served with water currently stands at 97,690, constituting 81.6% of the current population. The table below gives the summary;
Table 1: Water Situation in the District, 2016
S.No | Water Source | Quantity | Functional | Population |
| Boreholes | 170 | 109 | 32,700 |
2. | Hand-dug | 17 | 7 | 1,050 |
3. | Small Town Water System | 3 | 3 | 26,462 |
4. | Pipe System | 5 | 5 | 29,175 |
5. | Small Community Water System | 4 | 4 | 8,303 |
| Total | 199 | 128 | 97,690 |
Financial Institution
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is improving in the district with regards to mobile facilities. About 75 percent of the communities have mobile telecommunication network. Out of 69,784 persons aged 12 years and older in the district, only 27,935 representing 40 percent own mobile phones with only 2,342 representing about 3 percent use internet facility.