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HIV/AIDS SITUATION ANALYSIS UMKD:
Upper Manya Krobo District (UMKD) with its capital in Asesewa forms part of the new districts and municipalities that were created in 2007 to allow the government to fully implement its policies of local governance to the benefit of the entire citizenry. The district covers an area of about 1143 sq. kilometers.The 2000 Population and Housing Census indicates a population size of 154,301 for the then Manya Krobo District (MKD) which the UMKD was curved from. This comprises 76,070 males (49.3%) and 78,231 females (50.70%). The census indicates an annual growth rate of 1% for the district. However, the estimated population of Upper Manya Krobo District (UMKD) as at the year 2000 stands as 89,646 people. Average household size is about 7.51, higher than the National and the Regional averages of 4.6 and 5.1 respectively.
HIV/AIDS
infections rate-Being a new District, statistics on HIV/AIDS are not readily available. However, the prevalent rate in the then Manya-Krobo District which UMKD was curved-out from was 9.2% (2007) of which Upper Manya is no exception. The Upper Manya-Krobo District Assembly therefore considers this pandemic as a developmental problem.
The HIV/IDS menace is thus one of the issues that the new district is grappling with. It is one of the highest in the Country with an infection rate of about 9.2%. The problem is worrying because despite the struggle that these people goes through when they move out of the communities, they return on festivals days to exhibit some affluence. This entices some more youth at home to join the Exodus. When they are infected with the AIDs disease, they do not seek early treatment as superstition is high. As more and more young people are infected, the socio-economic problems in the District are deepening. Consequently these make poverty level to increasing and food and livelihoods security are challenged. A lot of Orphans have emerged and there is the need to provide these orphans with some vocational skills help them meet the basic necessities of life. This will reduce their vulnerability and tendency to migrate and gradually break the cycle.
The people of Upper Manya Krobo District are predominantly farmers with about ten percent (10%) of them involve in trading. Crops grown by the people are mainly maize or corn, cassava, pepper, sweet potato, plantain, yam, cocoyam, okro, tomatoes and others. Some of this population especially men are into fishing on the Volta Lake which lies at the North-eastern part of the District. Before the construction of the Akosombo Hydro Electric Dam, Agricultural production used to be very good because the lands were fertile and green. But, almost 56 years after the construction of the dam cultivation of crops suffers declining yields due to several factors among them is being the rise in the post-dam soil acidity in all the soils adjoining the banks of the river and the world climate change effects.
Food availability in the passed old days in the district reflected in the type of houses built those good days and the creation of markets such as the Asesewa, Sekesua, Akrusu, and Akateng which attracted traders from all over the country. With the construction of the dam however, some inhabitants were displaced and moved to mountainous and less fertilized areas. With climate change, these people become worse off as agricultural production slowed and yields of crops dropped. The situation has made these people poor and vulnerable. Their food and livelihoods security have been compromised and so they engage all sorts of coping mechanisms to survive. One of the most prominent coping strategies is for young people to migrate to neighbouring towns and others struggle to travel to other countries in search of livelihoods. However, without the requisite skill, they end doing menial jobs which does not give them meaningful income but rather go with its attendance problem of HIV/AIDs. Others end up practices that are unacceptable just to survive in the cities.
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