Water

Rivers and streams constitute the main sources of water for domestic utilization in the district. About 30% of the communities have access to safe drinking water. These comprise boreholes and hand-dug wells. Out of the 30% of the communities that have access to potable water, a significant proportion of the households continue to draw water from rivers and streams due to inadequacy and unreliability of facilitates. The rest of the communities depend mainly on streams and rivers. There is no pipe borne water in the district. By January 2007 about 118 boreholes meant for 74 communities in the district would have been drilled. This will help solve the acute water problem in the district.

Sanitation

Access to clean environment is a pre-requisite for quality life. Unfortunately, the sanitation situation in the district is deplorable. Refuse disposal is indiscriminately done through the open dumping system. In addition to this the drainage system is very poor. These have resulted in excessive erosion leading to erosive settlements. However, sanitation situation in the smaller communities is relatively better due to their small population sizes. On the other hand relatively larger communities like Jacobu, Tweapease and Fiankoma have peculiar problems due to rapid increase in their population and small number of facilities available.

Problems  with Sanitation

•    Inadequate disposal sites, especially Jacobu.
•    Inadequate refuse trucks and pay-loaders
•    Inadequate staffing
•    Attitude of the people
•    Inadequate financial resources.
Modern toilet facilities such as KVIP, Aqua Privy toilets are non-existent in most communities resulting in dependence on pit latrines.

Housing

Most of the houses are built with land crate and roofed with roofing sheets. These houses are owned by the natives.

Implications for Development

The average class size of 58as against the normal size of 35 per class makes teaching and learning difficult resulting in poor quality education. Only one secondary school at Jacobu catering for 29 Junior Secondary Schools in district contributes partly to high dropout rate of pupils from JSS. Due to the poor facilities at the only Hospital in the district most health cases are referred to Bekwai or Kumasi with its attendant huge financial implications and high possibility of deaths. Lack of access to  potable water leads to prevalence of water borne diseases like diarrhoea and cholera. Poor environmental situation arising from improper waste disposal has led to the prevalence of diseases like malaria. Lack of motor bikes to monitor environmental situation in the district has led to poor supervision and monitoring of the situation in the district.