Akwatia is a town in
Denkyembour, a district in the
Eastern region of south
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
and west of the
Atewa Range
The Atewa Range Forest Reserve (also called the Atiwa-Atwaredu ranges) is in the Akyem Abuakwa region of southeastern Ghana, near the town of Kibi, and south-west of the Kwahu Plateau which forms the south-west boundary of Lake Volta. The range ...
in the
Birim River
The Birim River is one of the main tributaries of the Pra River in Ghana and the country's most important diamond-producing area, flowing through most of the width of the Eastern region. The river rises in the east of the Atewa Range, flows nor ...
basin. Akwatia has a 2013
settlement
Settlement may refer to:
*Human settlement, a community where people live
*Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building
* Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction
*Settlement (fin ...
population of 23,766 people.
Akwatia is the main center of
diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
extraction in Ghana. The town is the center of the Denkyembour parliamentary constituency.
Facilities
Education
Schools include St. Rose's´High School and Akwatia Technical Institute. The local football club is the Akwatia Diamond Stars.
Healthcare
Akwatia can boast of two hospitals, The Saint Dominic's Hospital and The Ghanaian Consolidated Diamonds Company Hospital (G.C.D Hospital).
The Saint Dominic's Hospital in Akwatia is a 320-bed facility, and well-equipped and the hospital opened an Eye Clinic in 2003.
Diamond mining
The Akwatia diamond field lies in
Birimian
The Birimian rocks are major sources of gold and diamonds that extend through Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso. They are named after the Birim River, one of the main tributaries of the Pra River in Ghana and the country's m ...
rocks and has produced more than a of diamonds, mostly industrial grade. The Ghana government-owned Ghana Consolidated Diamonds (GCD) is the only formal commercial producer of diamonds, using strip mining with
Manitowoc draglines.
Large additional resources of
diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
s have been identified in the nearby Birim River deposits, including an altered
meta-lamproite that may represent a primary
diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
source.
References
{{GhanaLargestCities
Populated places in the Eastern Region (Ghana)