The climate of the Volta and Oti Regions, like the rest of the country is strongly influenced by the annual oscillation of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) about the equator which attracts two major air masses namely the South West Monsoon Winds and the North East Trade Winds. The ITCZ is created by maximum heating of the earth surface and is located in the region where the north-ward moving maritime air masses meet the south-ward moving continental air masses. The topography of the region also has a significant influence on the climate of the region.

The Region has a tropical climate with temperatures ranging between 21ºC and 32ºC for most of the year. The annual rainfall ranges between 2,103mm and 1,168mm.

The main vegetation types in the region are moist deciduous forests in the central part and the Savannah which is located in the Northern and Southern parts of the region. Near the coast, mangrove vegetation is found.

The southern part of the region, from the coast as far as the southern parts of Ho Municipal is relatively flat with the highest elevations reaching up to 75m.

The Akwapim-Togo ranges which starts from (near) the mouth of the Densu River west of Accra runs through the central and northern parts of Ho Municipal through the eastern parts of Kpando to Hohoe into the Republic of Togo.

The average height of the range is about 450m above sea level but the heights increase to between 600m and 872m on or near the Ghana-Togo border. Mountain Afadjato, 872m, the highest mountain peak in the country, is found near this border.

To the west of the Togo-Buem Mountains, and separated from them by the Dayi River valley, begins the north-south directed Kpando-Tutukpene Highlands which form the south-eastern border of the Voltaian Basin. Peaks in this range rise to about 750m at a number of points.

Two major hydrogeologic provinces exist in Ghana: These are (1) the basement complex, compose of Precambrian crystalline igneous and metamorphic rocks, and (2) Palaeozoic sedimentary formations. Minor Provinces also exist and they consist of (1) Cenozoic, Mesozoic and Paleozoic Sedimentary strata along narrow belt on the coast; and (2) Quaternary alluvium along the major streams courses.

The Basement complex underlines about 54% of the country and is further divided into sub provinces on the basis of geologic and ground water conditions (Gill, 1969), these sub provinces include metamorphosed and folded rocks of the Birimian system, Dahomeyan system, Tarkwa system, Togo series and Buem formation; the distribution of these units. The basement complex consists mainly of gneiss, phylite, schist, migmatite, granite- gneiss and quartzite. Large masses of granite have intruded the birimian rocks.

The palaezoic sedimentary formations, locally referred to as the Voltaian Formation, underlie about 45% of the country and consist mainly of sandstone, shale, arkose , mudstone, sandy and pebbly beds and limestone. The voltaian Formation is further subdivided on the basis of lithology and field relationships into the following subprovinces (junior and Hirst, 1946; Soviet Geological Survey team, 1964 to 1966): (1) Upper Voltaian (massive sandstone and thin-bedded sandstone); (2) Middle Voltaian (Obosum and Oti Beds); and (3) Lower Voltaian.

The remaining 1% of the rock formation is made up of two coastal provinces, the Coastal Block-Fault Provinces and the Coastal-Plain Provinces, and Alluvial Provinces (as previously shown in Fig. 2.1) The Coastal Block-Fault Provinces consist of a narrow discontinuous belt of Devonian and Jurassic sedimentary rock that have been broken into numerous fault blocks and are transected by minor intrusives (Kesse, 1985). The Coastal-plain hydrogeologic Province is underlain by semi-consolidated to unconsolidated sediments ranging from crateceous to Holocene in age south-eastern Ghana and in a relatively small isolated area in the extreme south-western part of the country. The Alluvial hydrogeologic Province includes narrow bands of alluvium of quaternary age, occurring principally adjacent to the Volta River and its major tributaries and in the Volta delta.

The Volta and Oti regions are underlain by the Pan-African mobile belt which comprises of the Togo series, Buem Formation and the Dahomeyan system, the middle Voltain and the coastal plain province.

The southern part of the Volta Region, an area lying between Ho and the Coast, is covered by sever different soil types; these are regosolic groundwater laterites, coastal savannah ochrosols, tropical black clays, tropical grey earths and coastal sands.

The regosolic ground water laterites are characterized by lateritic hard pans and occur extensively in the northern parts of Adidome, Sogakope, Akatsi and Ketu districts as well as the southern and western parts of Ho Municipal. The coastal Savannah ochrosols are well drained, porous, and loamy and occur in areas underlain by

Tertiary sands, clays and gravel deposits in parts of Akatsi, Ketu and Keta districts.

Alluvial silty clays, which are often highly leached and acidic, occur along the Lower Volta basin in the Central Tongu (Adidome) and South Tongu (Sogakope) districts. Also found in the Adidome district are tropical grey earths and black earth, the latter of which extends across the southern part of Ho Municipal. The black clays are alkaline in nature, very plastic, rich in Ca and Mg and developed over basic gneisses whereas the grey earth are slightly acidic with a thin sand and predominantly clay profile, and are developed over acidic gneiss terrain.

The lagoon areas of the southern part of the region are covered by sodium vleisols and the coastal areas with sands.

The population of the Volta region is 1,865,332 by the 2010 Population & Housing Census (PHC) projected to 2019, with a growth rate of 2.5%

The economic characteristics of the population of the Volta Region are 59.7% in Agriculture, 13.7% in Production, Transport and Equipment Operation, 12.8% in Sales Work, 6.3% in Professional, Technical and Related Work and 3.9% in Services.

Apart from agriculture and manufacturing, there are activities in several other industries like mining (kaolin) and quarrying, wholesale and retail trade, tourism and construction.

Before the regional demarcation in December 2018, the region had 25 districts consisting of 5 municipals and 20 districts. Oti Region was carved out of the Volta region, reducing the size of the region and the number of administrative districts from 25 to 18.

The Municipals/ Districts of Volta Region and their capitals

The region is run by a Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) and District Assemblies. The RCC is made up of the Oti Regional Minister who is the political head and his deputy as well as representatives of the Regional House of Chiefs, the District Chief Executives of the Oti region, the Presiding Members of the 8 Districts Assemblies and the heads of the various decentralized Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the Oti region. Each district is run by a District Assembly.

The Municipals/ Districts of Oti Region and their capitals

Source: Ghana Statistical Service (web).

With the inception of the National Community Water and Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) and assistance from development partners (especially DANIDA, GTZ/KFW, STRABAG and Ghana -Spain Debt Swap Project) a lot has been done in the Volta and Oti Regions with regard to the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation services across the length and breadth of the region.
The following is a summary of facilities installed and are being used in the communities.
ACCESS TO WATER SUPPLY
• 2417 boreholes fitted with standardized hand-pumps have been provided for rural communities
• 56 hand-dug wells fitted with hand-pump have been provided in rural communities
• 75 Gravity-fed pipe water systems in communities
• 23 Limited Mechanized Pipe systems in communities
• 175 GWCL connected Pipe systems in communities
• 56 Mechanized boreholes small town pipe systems in communities
• 9 Rain Water Harvesting Systems have been constructed in some communities
• 5 Surface Water Treatment Small Town pipe systems in communities
The Rural water coverage is 63.22 percent (DiMES December, 2019)

Water quality challenges

The most prominent Water quality challenges with groundwater supply in the Volta Region is excessive total Iron and Manganese concentration in some of the communities. High total iron concentration of 3.30 mg/L has been observed in some borehole within the Agotime Ziope District, Ho West District, Adaklu District, North Dayi District and Ho Municipality. This makes the cost of providing water facilities for such communities very high.

Salinity has also been observed in some communities along the coast as a result of sea water intrusion. As result of the high salinity, boreholes are not been a preferred option for water supply for some communities along the coast.

Difficult hydrogeologic formation in some communities

As indicated above, the success rate for developing well in the Dahomeyan formation is about 36% with an average yield of 3m3/hr. As a result of this, serving some communities within the Central Tongu, North Tongu, Adaklu and Agotime-Ziope Districts with groundwater sources is a challenge.