Akunnaaq is one of the settlements under Aasiaat and is located approximately 23 km east of the town on the island of Akunnaap Nunaa. The settlement was founded as a trading station in 1850, but was already inhabited before its formal foundation.
Provisions and subareas
The general provisions apply to all subareas of the municipalities in towns, settlements and open country areas. The provisions are general and do not consider the local conditions in the subareas.
General provisions of the Town Plan
The overall provisions for each subarea are the basis for the municipality"s granting of area allotments and building permits.
Akunnaaq’s present service and housing level is to be sought maintained. Further urban development is to take place within the existing subareas. Regarding occupation, especially fishing must be strengthened and improved, so sufficient areas should be allotted for new facilities, quay and fishing places. The tourism potential should be investigated and should be realised in and around the settlement. Simultaneously, suitable housing and public offers, outdoors and indoors, are to be provided, e.g. by rethinking existing empty houses and by including more functions in public houses. Environmental matters in the settlement should be improved by providing suitable area allotment for a dump etc.
The population is more than halved since 1980 (196) and is down to 88 inhabitants in 2017. It is therefore expected that the population will continue to decline. As no increase is forecasted for the planning period, the primary need will concern replacement buildings in connection with redevelopment of senior and family houses.
Housing solely consists of detached, mostly single-family, 1-1½-storey houses. A proportionally high number of the houses are relatively old, built before 1960. The town plan leaves room for approximately 40 homes in the settlement.
Existing jobs primarily lie within fishing, sealing and whaling, seasonal production at the fish factory and skilled trade. Services, the shop, the school and the municipal administration of settlement facilities and offices also create jobs.
The three settlements in the Aasiaat district had a total unemployment rate of 10.2 in 2015, which is higher than for Aasiaat (8.2%), but resembles the general picture of the municipality Qeqertalik. This corresponds to the municipal average (10.7%), but slightly higher than the national average (9.1%).
Akunnaaq has a good natural harbor, which contains both fixed quays, boatsledges and pontoon bridges for dinghies. From the port and east, Naalakkersuisut has designated a port authority area.
The town plan leaves room for building approximately 2,000 m2 for industry and port purposes.
The settlement is serviced by a helistop, which was relocated to its present location west of the settlement a few years age.
The road structure primarily consists of an east-west road, running from the telecommunications plant and the cemetery in the east to the helistop and E dump area in the west, with a byroad to the port and church.
There is a diesel-powered power plant and the water supply is based on surface water distributed via pipes and bottling houses. Operations is managed by Nukissiorfiit. Houses are individually heated by private oil-fired burners. Waste is dumped at the dump west of the settlement, where also night soil is deposited, or burned in the settlement’s incineration plant. Plans exist to move both the dump and incineration plant to a more appropriate location. There is no solution for hazardous waste and metal scrap.
The settlement has a church (built in 1908), a settlement consultation post, a trading place for raw materials, a municipal workshop with adjoining laundry facilities and a carpenter’s workshop and KNI Pilersuisoq (grocery store).
The local school (Aadap atuarfia) has 15 pupils.
The church (B-153), the trading station manager’s house from 1926 (B-85), the salting house from 1948 (B-75) and the two old warehouses (B-71 and B-83) are considered preservation-worthy.
The settlement also boasts a village hall and a soccer field that is located between the settlement and the helistop.
