During our trip, we GPS tracked our movements and made an interactive map out of our field trip!

Scroll over the map to zoom in and out, click on the track for a description and on the waypoints for a name and sometimes a picture:

• GREEN is the day we met with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), and walked from Independance Square to James Town and Makkola Market. (13.01)
• BLUE is our trip to the Kpong water treatment plant - scroll out to see full extent. (14.01)
• YELLOW is our trip to the Weija water treatment plant and tour of the Densu delta (15.01)
  RED is the day we visited Accra's upcycling stores, met with the president of the Slum Union of Ghana in Old Fadama and spent the evening at "Alliance Francaise". (16.01)
• PURPLE is the day we visited Mrs. Teresa Acquah outside of town (near Oyibi) (17.01)

The whole WaterPower team spent one week together in Accra, visiting interesting sites and getting to know the city. Navigate through the posts below to follow the team exploring neighbourhoods, networking with important partners and touring of important water sites (e.g. Kpong water treatment plant).

Program
Day 1 - discovering Accra on a winding, transect taxi tour from Legon to Makkola Market. Sunday stroll through Makkola followed by a walk towards James Town lighthouse, along the coastal high street.
Day 2 - University appointments and discovering Osu.
Day 3 - Meetings with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), walk from Independance Square to James town and Makkola Market on a busy day.
Day 4 - Excursion to the Kpong water treatment plant. 
Day 5 - Excursion to the Weija water treatment plant and tour of the Densu delta by Fanny Frick. 
Day 6 - Reflection meeting, visiting Accra's upcycling stores, meeting with the president of the Slum Union of Ghana in Old Fadama followed by an evening at the "Alliance Francaise".
Day 7 - Invitation to visit Mrs. Teresa Acquah outside of town (near Oyibi) and discovering a beautiful home. 
Day 8 - Trip to Kotobabi and Alagio. Departure of Antje, Friederike, Viviana and Emily - the PhD team stays for another full week filled with appointments and new discoveries. 

On our last day, we spent the morning walking around Kotobabi, a neighbourhood in the northern part of Accra. As it was Sunday, everyone wore their Sunday best and worship songs filled the air. Unexpectedly, we came across an imposing, concrete artificial canal that – as we learnt later – used to be a river. As it was the dry season, the canal did not carry much water and seemed all the more bleak with waste strewn along its length. And yet, this canal would still flood the surrounding neighbourhood Alagio in the rainy season, we were told by two local teenagers who kindly let us to their favourite roof top bar. With a magnificent view over Accra, we topped off our trip with one last Alvaro, great conversation and a cool breeze wafting along the roof.

After another short tour around the Makola Market, admiring cloths and colors, overwhelmed by the narrow corridors, smells, sounds, the sheer amount of people, we visited Mrs. Teresa Acquah, whom we met in the city centre a week earlier. Mrs. Acquah spent 30 years living in Vienna, Austria, before being introduced to a property manager, who convinced her and her husband to spend their retirement in Accra. Her newly built house is located outside the city, towards Oyibi, in a secured and gated community. Mrs. Acquah treated us to delicious homemade plantain snacks, as we talked about water access and her private garden filled with fruits and vegetables, which she kindly showed us. 

On Thursday, we went on our second guided tour, this time to the Weija Water Treatment plant. The first-hand demonstration of the dam discharge – the gates were opened a mere couple of millimetres and gushed forth a massive swell of water – was definitively a highlight, as well as the tour of the water laboratories and purification pools. In contrast to Kpong, the Weija reservoir has low quality raw water and so several more chemical purification steps are used, as was demonstrated to us in the laboratory.

Finishing our visit with a packed lunch, we then drove through the Densu Delta, visited the salt producing plains, the recreational beach zone, high and lower income encroachment of the wetland area that is officially protected under the international RAMSAR wetland convention.

During a reflection meeting in the morning, we analysed and summarised research aims, new findings and perceptions. In the afternoon, we visited the NGOs “Trashy Bags” and “Global Mama” that are known for producing merchandise and tourist artefacts from up- and recycled waste and plastic in Accra, including products made from sachet water. We then went to a meeting with the president of the newly founded “Slum Union of Ghana” in Old Fadama – a very insightful talk and opportunity to glimpse another side of Accra in this informal settlement.

Our first longer excursion in a minibus was a guided trip to the Kpong Water treatment plan, which supplies tap water to the north-eastern part of Accra and Tema. We toured the old, current and newly constructed intake plants and walked along the water purification process stations. In the afternoon, we drove to the Akosombo dam, which we could only see from afar, and were awed by the breathtakingly beautiful Volta River reservoir.

In order to introduce the WaterPower project to transdisciplinary stakeholders in Accra and to further frame the research questions, the WaterPower team went to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ghana Water Company Limted (GWCL). Parallel to this, Emily and I conducted further characterisation and documentation of James Town by walking from Independence Square through the Makola Market area, towards the James Town light house. After paying 4 cedi and climbing up some dangerous looking stairs, we had a good overview of the coastal area of James Town.

Around midday, exhausted from the harmattan heat, we were hot, dusty and thirsty and very thankful to find one of the pub/kiosks that open up only on request. Sitting in the shade and drinking the typical and deliciously refreshing Alvaro soft drink with the owner and his customers, we saw the prevailing sanitation situation of the area first hand, using the communal toilet in the backyard: a simple drain in the ground, discharging into one of the many open gutters in the street.

For the first time out on our own – as part of the team had a meeting with Prof. Chris Gordon and his team at the University of Ghana Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS) – Emily and I indulged in Accra life by taking a trotro to the neighbourhood of Osu. Trotros are the main component of the public transport network and seem to consist of a fleet of old and sorted out mini-busses from the west, many still showing German company logos and writings such as “Baustellenfahrzeug” or “Ihr Kaminbauer in Düsseldorf”. After walking up Oxford Street, one of the main shopping streets in Accra, we ventured into the more interesting side streets. There we came across the Beijing Herbal Medicine Centre, a sign of the strong Chinese presence in Accra, and started talking to street vendors who gladly shared their “water knowledge” with us. With the help of many bypassers, we finally arrived at Christiansborg castle – or rather, at its gates. Beyond a somewhat ramshackle area with plenty of goats and chicken on each side, we stopped in front of closed gates guarded by police – no chance for a glimpse of the presidential palace, we were told.