Population
The Dangme East District has a population of 93,112 with female slightly dominating at an estimated population of 448,913 while male population was estimated at 44,199 (2000 population and housing census, Ghana Statistical Services, 2000).

Population Size And Growth Rates
The data from the 1960, 1970 and 1984 census suggest that the population of the Dangme East district rose from 43,844 in 1960 to 52164 in 1970 and 71550 in 1984. (Table 2,) These meant that the inter census growth rate were 1.7% per annum between 1960 - 1970, and 2.3% between 1970-1984.

Population Density
The population increase over time is reflected in the density of population record for the periods 1984 and 2000 (Table). The land area of Dangme East District is (909 sq km) and was inhabited by 71,550 in 1984, and 93,112 persons in the year 2000. The number of person per square kilometre (density) as at each of the population censuses has therefore moved from 79 persons in 1984 to 102.4 persons in 2000.

The population density expresses the level of pressure the mere size of population exerts on land; the increasing density in time therefore shows the increasing pressure on the Dangme East District population on the land and it available resources.
 
Age- Sex Structure of Population
The structure of the population of the District from a 1999 Demographic Survey under the Strategic Investment Programme of the Dangme East District is shownin Table 4.

Table 4

Age Group	Male	Female	Total
	1999	1999
0-4	5.5	5.3	10.8
5-9	7.2	8.5	15.7
10-14	5.1	6.2	11.3
15-19	5.2	6.5	11.7
20-24	4.3	4.5	8.8
25-29	4.1	4.5	8.6
30-34	3.3	3.4	6.7
35-39	3.7	3.8	7.5
40-44	2.9	3.9	6.8
45-49	1.00	2.3	3.30
50-54	1.5	1.9	3.4
55-59	0.7	1.8	2.5
60+	1.4	1.5	2.9
	45.9	54.1	100

Source: Demographic Survey, (SIP) 1999

The above data suggest that:
a) 37.8 per cent of population is under 15 years of age.
b) 2.9 per cent of the population is over 60 years of age.
 
Such a population structure results in high dependency ratios, i.e., the ratio of non- productive persons (persons age 0-14 and those age 60 and over) is 40.7 topersons age 15-59 which is 59.3. The dependency ratio is 68.6 dependants to every 100 productive population.Although the ratio is not too high is still a problem due to lack of job opportunities in the District.

Certain peculiarities were however noticed. There is greater number of children in age 5-9 compared to 0-4. This might be due to the situation where out migrants return their children home to school in the District. This feature not withstanding, the structure raises the need to improve the quality and quantity of social and economic facilities in the District.

Migration
The district experiences a considerable movement of people out of the district. This high migration of population could be attributed to the lack of job opportunities and basic social amenities in the district.

Rural Urban Split
Dangme East District depicts a rural- urban split of 82:18 as against 12:88 for the Greater Accra Region. However, with the dispersed nature and small population sizes of these rural communities, distribution of higher order services and functions become very difficult. This is because services need some population threshold before they can be provided.

Population By Rural and Urban

DISTRICT	RURAL POPULATION	PROPORTION RURAL	URBAN POPULATION	PROPORTION URBAN
Dangme East District	76,242	82%	16,870	18%
GT. Accra Region	358,042	12%	2.547,684	88 %

Ethnicity and Religion
According to the analysis of the survey in terms of religion, Christians dominate, comprising 70 percent, while Traditional Religion and Moslems represent 25 percent and 5 percent respectively. With regards to ethnicity, the district is a homogeneous society with Dangmes forming about 85 % of the population. 15 % from other ethnic groups across the country (Ewes, Akans, Ga etc,)

Conditions Of Built Environment
 
Housing
The housing environment in the district is characterised by poor drains, unkempt surrounding s, exposed foundations and leaking roofs. Most of the houses (40%) on the sample were found to be built with mud, wattle and daub and landcrete. The dominant materials used for roofing of houses are thatch and galvanised corrugated iron or aluminium sheets. Many dwelling units not conform to the building regulations and more so most residents are not aware of these regulations while the enforcing authority (DEDA) does not have the capacity to do so.
 
Of the household survey carried out in the 36 electoral Area, results indicate that the average household size was 6 persons which is far higher than UNO,s stipulated ideal household size of 2.5 persons which is also slightly lower than the National average of 4.1 persons ( CWIQ NOV. 1997). On the whole about 25% of the household in Dangme East are headed by women, a good proportion of which are single parents.

Existing Water Resources
The supply of potable water in the district is woefully inadequate and only a few sections of the district have regular supply of pipe-borne water. These include some major settlements like Ada Foah, Big Ada and Kasseh, which benefited from South Eastern District Water Supply Project (SEDWSP) under Department for International Department (DFID) and Ghana Government sponsored programme.

Figure 1 shows that 37 % of the district population have access to pipe-bome water or a tanker services. Whilst 6 % use a well or borehole. The remaining population in the district depend on untreated water from sources such as Ponds, Dams, Rivers, streams, dugouts and periodic harvesting of rainwater. This means that about 57 % of the settlements do not have potable water. Visually the water from the streams and dams are light brownish yellow caused by mostly decayed dead leaves. Ifturbulently disturbed it turns to deep brownish yellow and some suspended soils can be seen.

The existing prominent surface water resources in the district made up ofvolta rivers, Luhue streams, Sogor Lagoon, Futue river and Sege stream. Some dams and dugouts are constructed across this stream to trap water for domestics. agriculture and for animal rearing purposes. Some amount of water is harvested from rooftops during the raining season, but this is not enough.

For those who harvest, most of them do not have adequate means of storage. For many of the households, they simply cannot practise rain harvesting as most of the roofs are thatch and cannot really produce any considerable amount of safe water. The water supply situation can be acute in some areas like the Songor and Sege area such that animals and the inhabitants have to share water from the same pond or dam / stream.

This deplorable water situation in the Songor area has promoted water born diseases such as guinea worm, bilharzias, river blindness and worm infection. The situation is severe during the dry season when most of the people engage in salt winning and it has negative effect on production.

WATER SOURCES

TYPE	NO	NO. RAIN	RIVER	POND	STAND	BOREHOLE	POLYTANK	TANKERS
	WELLS	HARVEST			PIPE
		TANKS				0
PRIVATE	196	24	VOLTA	22	269	0	8	9
PUBLIC	13	3	VOLTA	9	127	4	10	2
PUBLIC	2	5	VOLTA	-	8	0	1	0
SCHOOLS
TOTAL	211	32	VOLTA	31	404	4	19	11

Current Intervention
The government of Ghana, DFID and District Assembly in collaboration with community water and sanitation Agency has reacted positively to the problem in various ways. Under the South Eastern District Water Supply Project sponsored by DFID, Pipe borne water has been connected to 38 communities.

The District Assembly has started negotiation with GWCL to extend water to more communities especially those near DFID Lines. The community water and sanitation Agency is collaborating with DANIDA and GWCL to extend water supply to additional 24 communities. The above efforts have only limited success. Borehole drilling for instance has not been fully successful because of the rock formation and high salinity content in some part of the district.

Water does not also flow through most of the existing pipes between Wokumagbe and Anyamam because large sections have broken down and these required extensive rehabilitation of the old Ningo Ada lines. Surface water sources are not only unreliable due to the high temperatures that lead to the drying up of most water bodies in the dry season but also these sources are often polluted with animal droppings.

Refuse disposal in the district is mostly unorganised, as people tend to dump refuse anywhere in the communities. Approximately 70% of household refuse are disposed of in the open space around the houses. The few organised ones have unkempt surroundings. In some areas especially the coastal areas disposal of refuse is used to fill waterlogged areas in order to reclaim land for development.

The situation is not different with regard to drainage system. Most of the communities lack drainage system. The few existing ones in the major towns (Ada Foah and Big Ada) are often choked with sand and household garbage. Areas experiencing adverse sanitation problems include Kasseh, Sege, Akplabanya, Wokumagbe, Anyamam, Totope, Pute, Goi and Azizanya. With this unhealthy situation, the people in the district are prone to epidemic outbreaks and preventable diseases such as malaria, and diarrhoea, which are due to the insanitary conditions in the district

Solid Waste Management
There is no institutionalised solid waste management system, in the district especially at secondary and tertiary stages. However at the primary disposal stage the Environmental offices and the communities through individuals/ individual households efforts dispose of their solid waste to nearby open dumping sites.

Poor Solid Waste Management
The poor solid waste management had negative implications for the district. The un-cleared solid waste and poor drainage constitute an’eyesore’, degrading the environmental quality and aesthetics of the district. The heaps of solid wastes and poor drainage in the district constitute a variable source of stench and offensive odour as well as pollution in the district. It therefore becomes imperative that the district Assembly and house owners give serious attention to these problems in order to rescue the situation.

SANITATION

TYPE	KVIP	VIP	STL	WC	PIT	VAN	PAN
PRIVATE	46	236	7	208	2	1	81
PUBLIC	6	5	16	-	4	-	3
SCHOOL	7	3	1	-	-	-	3
TOTAL	59	244	24	208	6	1	87

With regards to sanitation, the technology in use ranges from KVIP, VIP, Water Closet, open pit latrine and pan latrines. The use of Water Closets is in the affluent class. A few of the communities have one or two KVIPS, but in most cases, the KVIPS are those belonging to institutions such as schools and health centres.

Some communities have built pit latrines but these are uncovered and therefore become unusable especially in the rainy season. Only about 30% of the houses have toilet facilities. Most of the inhabitants simply resort to free range use of the bush around homes, which also have its accompanying health complication of contaminating sources of water.

The diagram below shows the main source of drinking water in Dangme East