Wassa East District Assembly
Wassa East District Assembly (WEDA) which has Daboase as its capital is one of the twenty two (22) MMDAs in the Western Region. The district, formally Mpohor Wassa East was originally carved out from Wassa Fiase Mpohor District In 1988 under LI 1385.
In 2012 Legislative Instrument (LI) 2019 spited Mpohor Wassa into two namely Wassa East and Mpohor Districts. Wassa East Assembly has a total membership of thirty-two (32). This is made up of Twenty one (21) elected members with eleven (11) Government Appointees, the District Chief Executive and the Member of Parliament. The membership of the Assembly is composed of Thirty (30) males and two (2) females and has one constituency. In line with the 1992 constitution, the Assembly has the following Sub-District Structures;
Daboase Area Council
Ekutuasie Area Council
Ateiku Area Council
Enyinabrem Area Council
Vision
The vision of WEDA is to be the lead district in the Western Region in particular and Ghana in general in improving the quality of the life of its people.
Goal
The District’s Medium Term Development Plan (2014-2017) goal is “enhancing access to basic social and economic services towards poverty reduction and accelerated growth”
Location And Size
Wassa East District is located at the South-Eastern end of the Western Region. It is bounded to the North East and South East by the Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira, Twifo Ati-Morkwa and Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem Districts, all in the Central Region. The district is again bounded on the North West by the Prestea Huni-Valley District. In the south, it is bounded by, Mpohor and Shama Districts in the Western Region and occupies an area of 1880 square kilometers of which 344 square km are used as cultivable land. The District has large deposits of gold, traces of iron and kaolin hence, the upsurge of mining activities in the district. Small-scale mining activities are carried out in areas like Sekyere Krobo, Sekyere Heman, Nsadweso and Ateiku.
Before the district was split, the population was 123,996 according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, (GSS, 2012) The Wassa East District’s population is currently estimated to be about 94, 507 comprising of 49,616 (52.5%) male and female of 44,891 representing 47.5% with an inter-censal growth rate of 3.2 percent, which is the same as the regional growth rate. It is however higher than the national growth rate of 2.7 percent. By the end of 2017 planning period, the population would have increased to 185,840. The district’s share of the total population of the Western Region is 6.4 percent. The fertility rate of the district is 4.5 which is higher than the regional figure of 3.6 according to the 2010 Population Housing Census.
An analysis of the population structure reveals a high economically active population of 50.6 percent, which indicates an immense human resource potential for development. This could be attributed to migration of labor to seek employment in the agriculture and mining sectors of the District. There are 192 settlements in the District and a spatial analysis indicates that the provision of services in the district is inadequate and their distribution skewed in favour of the District capital.
District Assembly Economy
The District is predominantly dominated by agriculture with mining contributing about one-third of economic activities. About 70% of the active population engages in peasant farming producing food crops and cash crops like cocoa, coffee and oil palm with about 20% indulged in small-scale mining activities. The primary nature of the agricultural produce is food Stuff. This calls for a massive investment in food processing which would lead to competitive prices for the farmers and hence higher incomes. The activities of Golden Star Mining Ltd and SOCFINAF Plantation Ltd have also created employment avenues for about 5% of the active labor force in the District Illegal mining on the Subri and Pra rivers and the forest poses a great challenge to the District.
Road
The district has a poor road network and only 25km out of the 202km motor able roads in the district are of bituminous surface with 103 km being engineered roads while 43 km is partially engineered and the remaining 31 km classified as none engineered. The situation renders some of the settlements in the District inaccessible during rainy season. Besides the poor road network accounts for the low market for agricultural produce in the District making prices very low.
Education
One of the major challenges to the district is inadequate educational facilities like classroom blocks. Out of a total of 192 settlements, there are 94 Pre-schools, 90 Primary and only 48 are JHS with 1 SHS. Even though there has been a major improvement in access to school buildings over the years more needs to be done to reduce the incidence of school pupils walking a long distance from one community to another to attend school.
Health
Another issue of concern to the Assembly is the inadequacy of health facilities. There are 17 health facilities in the district which are whole fully inadequate to cater for the health needs of the inhabitants. Inhabitants on the average travel for about 31km to access health facilities. The Doctor/Patient Ratio is 1:32,555 with a Nurse/Patient Ratio of 1: 2,668. It is in this respect that the District Assembly is vesting much of its limited resources in the construction of CHPS and equipping of the existing facilities.
Water and Sanitation
The rural nature of the District also calls for the provision of safe water and improved sanitary facilities like public toilet. The 192 settlements in the District have 65% water coverage as at the end of 2013. Out of this, 4 communities have access to Pipe-borne water and 3 communities with Small Town Piped System. 89 Boreholes exist in 62 communities while 70 communities have access to 74 Hand-dug wells. Though the District receives support from Donor Partners, it is devoting portions of its share of DACF and DDF to augment the supply of portable and safe water as well as in the provision of public toilets to inhabitants in the District.