@conference {353781,
	title = {Murky Waters on a Gold(en) Coast: Progress and Pollution along the Korle Lagoon in Accra, Ghana},
	booktitle = {WCFIA Undergraduate Thesis Conference},
	year = {2015},
	month = {February 6},
	publisher = {Weatherhead Center for International Affairs},
	organization = {Weatherhead Center for International Affairs},
	address = {Cambridge, MA},
	abstract = {This thesis examines the discussions of pollution along the Korle Lagoon in Accra, Ghana.\&nbsp; Much of the discourse centres on the Old Fadama slum (popularly called {\textquoteleft}Sodom and Gomorrah{\textquoteright}) identifying it as the spatiotemporal point from which the lagoon becomes polluted. I examine these popular claims (from interviews, news paper articles etc.) against the record to see whether indeed the settlement is as harmful to the lagoon (and the environment of the city more broadly) as is widely believed. The archives show complaints about the deplorable condition of the lagoon (and plans to reverse it) as far back as the 1930s: six decades before the slum emerged; and more recent ecological surveys show that the lagoon and its main tributary the Odaw River are heavily polluted right from the source in the mountains {\textendash} i.e. long before it meets the slum at the coast. Thus despite how widely held this view is, evidence from both the history and geography combine to disprove it. In addition, many of the claims about pollution and the slum extend beyond the ecological, as the slum is widely believed to be a hub of crime, sexual deviance and antisocial behaviour through which much of the city stands to be contaminated. I examine this concept of {\textquotedblleft}people as pollution,{\textquotedblright} and attempt to draw a link between this view of its residents as a danger to the city with the earlier perception of the settlement as environmentally harmful to the lagoon, to see how the popularity of both claims might be a strategy to support recent attempts to demolish the slum and evict its residents (to make way for the mayor{\textquoteright}s recreational resort project).
I{\textquoteright}m just working on getting this written. I{\textquoteright}ve spent two years on this project, so I have more information than I need and my ideas about what to use and how have changed continuously over the past semester. Having decided on this route, my main task will be to stick with it and write it out as clearly as I can. \&nbsp;},
	author = {Onuoha, Debbie}
}
