So I just stumbled across this fabulous resource – a wiki on water issues in Sub-Saharan African countries, can you imagine! The IWA Water Wiki is a “An information resource and hub for the global water community.”
They have in-depth water and sanitation analyses on cities like…
Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal, etc.
Obviously, not all city information articles are created equal (some have waaay more info than others, and since this is a wiki, it’s community edited and not peer reviewed, which can of course lead to inconsistencies at at times inaccurate details or estimations), but I have to say I really do love the idea of this free, shared, community-driven and inspired resource.
A bit of info from the Accra page on the website:
Accra is an urban agglomeration with a population of about 3.5 million people (Brinkhoff 2010). The agglomeration (often referred to as the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area) basically corresponds to the areas covered by the Accra Metropolitan assembly, the Ga East District Assembly, the Ga West District Assembly and the Tema Municipal Assembly. It is a coastal city with average altitude of 20 m above sea level and mostly flat or with gentle slopes; it is drained by Odaw River via the Korle Lagoon. Climate is tropical wet and dry (Köppen classification Aw), mean annual precipitation 725 mm. Flooding of low-income settlements in some districts is frequent and severe; see SWITCH Accra (2009) and Nyarko (2002) for detailed information. Major polluting industries include textiles, food processing and metal and chemical industries (Boadi & Kuitunen 2002). There is significant agricultural activity in peri-urban areas of the agglomeration (see Boadi 2002); though note Klinkenberg et al. (2007), who suggest that urban agriculture may favour malaria transmission. About 60% of the population is estimated to live in low-income settlements (Abraham et al. 2007).
Very cool, check it out!