ABSTRACT
Accra is a vibrant city in the classical mold. At its core, there are modern commercial buildings, traditional government structures, and old colonial-era residences, now densely packed with the poor. And sprawling out from this central business district are the residential suburbs, regularly interspersed with open spaces and usually segregated by income class. Accra is not a typical African city. A quarter century ago, Ghana was the most urbanized of all West African countries, and its urban population growth rate was the highest, some 10% per annum. After Independence in 1957, however, with almost continual economic mismanagement and stagnation, the urban population growth rate fell to barely 3%, the lowest in Africa. Accra draws its water supplies mostly from Lake Volta, which provides an ample, cheap, and unpolluted water source for the city and its environs. But the drinking water that reaches most of Accra’s citizens is not ample, cheap, or unpolluted.
