Close to 80,000 people live in Sodom and Gomorrah. The slum lies on the edge of the polluted Korle Lagoon-the processing of electronic waste near the lagoon leaches toxic substances like lead into the soil. The place sprang up in the 1980s when thousands of people fleeing bloody ethnic clashes between the Kokomba and Nanumba in the north poured into the capital. More people came when the conflict escalated in 1994 and by 2010, the population in the slum was estimated to be in excess of seventy nine thousand. Imagine this many people living cheek by jowl in less than three point one square kilometers without access to water, sanitation and other basic facilities. And the numbers keep swelling, as migrants from impoverished regions continue to arrive in the hope of sharing in Accra’s elusive wealth. A report by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights says there are more than 25 slums in Accra alone; one third of Accra’s residents are believed to live in slums. That is, out of a population of about four million, close to one and half million people live in areas where they cannot access water or toilets, and are obliged to spend a significant amount of their time and resources, accessing these necessities. The majority of them are migrants from the countryside. Sodom and Gomorrah is the largest slum in Accra. It’s name, an allusion to the biblical story of a town steeped in wickedness and immorality that it was destroyed by God. Sodom and Gomorrah has the unfortunate distinction of being the worst slum settlement in Accra. It has become a synonym for armed robbers, prostitutes, drug dealers and mountains of filth and, this has compelled the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to describe the place as not fit for human settlement. The AMA’s Public Relations Officer Numo Blafo, said the slum will have to go. He said “whether or not the people have their homes there does not matter, the final decision is that it has to go.” But the AMA’s position is not pleasant news for civil society group Peoples Dialogue on Human Settlement, a community based organisation helping to find a permanent solution to urban poverty. Its executive director Farouk Braimah said the point of departure has to be recognizing that Sodom and Gomorrah is home to over seventy thousand people. He said the place remains “a livelihood and job placement hub” for the dwellers, adding; “it is income that brings people to the city and not shelter.” Mr. Braimah also explained that evicting the squatters is not the solution to breathing life into the dead Korle Lagoon. He said the solution is for the city authority to be able to think more creatively rather than always “thinking about the next elections.” There are also concerns about sanitation in the slum. Open sewers are everywhere in the community and they compete with the smell of cooking food, putting the health of the people at risk. The residents also suffer from toxic substances emanating from the burning of used and discarded electronic cables from the dumpsite. The only hospital in the community is barely operational and residents therefore dwell on the small shops selling medicines for treatment. Play the attached audio for the full documentary