PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIROMENT

Location and Size

Agona East District is situated in the eastern corner of the Central Region within latitudes 5030’and5 050’N and between longitudes 0 035’ and 0 055’ W. The Agona East District Assembly (AEDA) was carved out of the defunct Agona District Assembly in 2008 by Legislative Instrument 1921 in 2007 as a means of ensuring effective administration, holistic development and bringing development to the doorstep of its citizens. . It is one of the Twenty-two (22) Political and Administrative Districts in the Central Region of Ghana with a total land of 539.7squarekilometers, which is about 6 percent of the total land area of Central Region.

It is bounded on the south-west by the Agona West Municipal Assembly. The West Akim Municipal and Birim South District Assemblies lie to the north of the District whilst it is bounded on the east by Awutu Senya West District and south-east by Gomoa East District and to the west by Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa and Ajumako-Enyan Essiam Districts. The District whose capital is Agona Nsaba, falls within the forest belt of Ghana and is a cocoa producing area.

Fig 1.3: District in the National Context

Fig. 1.4 : District in the Regional Context

Settlements of Agona East District Assembly

Relief and Drainage

Agona East District has a diversified relief with altitudes varying between 75-150 meters above sea level with the highest point being 350 meters. The district has undulating and sloppy topography from north to south with isolated hill rocks such as Obotomfo in the north- east, most of which are made up of granitic rocks. Two main rivers, Akora and Ayensu, primarily drain this District. There are other small rivers like Krufa, Samsam, Dutch, Nkumkum, and Oboyambo, which could be useful for purposes of irrigation. Other seasonal rivers include; Afono, Duakwateaa, Zongomu and Ameang.

Soil and Land Use

The major soil type found in the District 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, oil palm and coconut. Typical forest food crops like plantain, banana, cassava, cocoyam and maize. Vegetables such as pepper, garden eggs, tomato, okro and sugar cane cultivation are widespread. Agriculture occupies most of the land use; however, certain areas are devoted to forestry e.g. Obotomfo and community settlements.

Fig. 1.6: Geological Map of Agona East District

Climate and Vegetation

Generally, the District lies in the wet semi-equatorial climatic zone. It has two main crop growing seasons: a bio-modal pattern of rainfall with the maximum 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 temperatureof33.8 0 occurring between March/April and the lowest of about 29.4 0 C in August.

The area falls within the moist tropical and semi-deciduous forest with many 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 becomeveryimportant economic

Fig. 1.7: Vegetation Map of Agona East District

CONDITIONS OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

CLIMATE CHANGE & GREEN ECONOMY

Climate Change

Climate change is a result of human activities. These are seen in bad farming, uncontrolled chainsaw, unregulated sand winning and hunting practices. According to the National Disaster Management Organisation, about 75.5% of the households in the district use fuel woodand9.2%use charcoal as their main sources of energy for cooking thus, giving an indication of the extent of deforestation of the forest cover in the district.

The commonest farming practice in the district is the slash and burn method of clearing the land for farming. This practice has left large tracts of farmland bare and exposed them to serious erosion, thereby rapidly destroying the natural vegetation of the district. Related to farming, though not alarming, is the incidence of bush fire in the district, especially during the dry season when farmers start preparing new farmlands. Moreover, the indiscriminate activities of chain saw operators for timber, firewood and burning of charcoal add to the environmental degradation.

As result of these afore-mentioned activities, the natural environment has been greatly degraded in almost all parts of the District increasing the impact of climate change, which manifests itself in low rainfall, serious erosion of inhabited land, flooding, decreasing vegetation cover, drying up of rivers and streams and high rise in atmospheric temperature.

Green Economy:

Key Sectors to Transform Agona East District into a Green Economy

OBJECTIVE: To intensify the use of organic fertilizer, Agric research and development to enhance post-harvest technologies.

Table 1.22: Programme On Green Economy
 

NATURAL AND MAN-MADE DISASTERS

The commonest farming practice in the district is the slash and burn method of clearing the land for farming. This practice has left large tracts of farmland bare and exposed them to serious erosion, thereby rapidly destroying the natural vegetation of the district. Related to farming, though not alarming, is the incidence of bush fire in the district, especially during the dry season when farmers start preparing new farmlands. Moreover, the indiscriminate activities of chain saw operators for timber, firewood and burning of charcoal add to the environmental degradation

As result of these afore-mentioned activities, the natural environment has been greatly degraded in almost all parts of the District increasing the impact of climate change, which manifests itself in low rainfall, serious erosion of inhabited land, flooding, decreasing vegetation cover, drying up of rivers and streams and high rise in atmospheric temperature.

The district has experienced 48-disaster situation emanating from fire, flood and rainstorm in the past 4 years. About 1,133 people were displaced in all the disaster situations. The details is shown below.

Table 1.25: Disaster Occurrence in the district

SOURCE: 2017 DMTDP- NADMO

Causes of Disasters

· Indiscriminate building
· Lack /inadequate gutters/ drains to absorb large volume of water
· Deforestation (Activities of chain saw operators for firewood)
· Inadequate sensitization programmes on impact of climate change