Many members would have been horrified at recent reports in the Ghanaian press of raw sewage flowing in the streets of the School! The School Board, Management, OAA Executive and other groups and individuals are working frantically behind the scenes to get the problem resolved. Whilst we have received many messages of strong support, a significant proportion of our members are also expressing frustration at the apparent lack of action to solve the problem!

As part of the public actions in support of the more private efforts, The Achimota School Foundation, a group of Old Achimotans with a specific focus has set up a website to gather as many signatures as possible in a Petition to the Government to act immediately to save the School. The OAA supports this initiative and urges All Old Achimotans and friends of the School to sign up to the petition.

During an informal and brief meeting of concerned OAA members and individual memebers of the Board, on Sunday  31st January 2010, the Board Chairman, Akora Kwasi Okoh briefed those gathered on the situation. After some discussions the group assembled agreed to set up a fund to help in solving the problem.  This would allow those in Ghana to contribute directly to the effort. Various meetings have been held since then.

The Board has now set up two accounts to receive donations from those who wish to support the general effort to protect the School's lands, parts of which are integral to the solution of the sewage crisis. The details of the accounts can be found on this website under "Current Challenges"

We list below the School's needs as determined through various communication with the School, principally the Headmistress. The School's priorities change with time, sometimes in an unpredictable way, through no fault of their own. This list presented here is therefore not guarranteed to be an exhaustive list, neither can we guarrantee that a Year Group or other benefactor would not have taken up any one of these projects as we write.

The Aggrey Chapel needs to be extended.

Currently there are about 1,500 pupils in the School compared with about 600 in the 1960s and 800 in the 1970s. The chapel as constructed seats about six hundred pupils and sixty to eighty staff. Additional seating can be proivded by placing benches towards the rear and sides of the chapel.

When church services which are open to the public are held at the School, at least one year goup, sometimes two, out of the existing student population has to be excluded from the service. This represents a third to two thirds of the student population.

There is a need to fence the School.

At the time the School was built, only a few settlements lay on its boundaries. The limits of the built up area of Accra lay several miles beyond the Schools boundaries. Since the 1970s there has been a rapid expansion of the city of Accra, and today Achimota School lies well within the urban limits, rather than beyond its outskirts. A growing demand for land, water, electricity and other services has led to an increase in population around the area. The pressure on land is immense, and the School's land is gradually being encroached upon.

The School's Sewage Treatment Plant, built sometime in the early 1930s, is no longer functioning as well as it should. The decline has been gradual, starting sometime during the mid 1970s. Although efforts have been going on for some time to get something done about the situation, it was only about a decade ago that something concrete was started. With prize money from a competition won by a pupil of the School, design and construction work started to rehabilitate the system. Unfortunately money ran out before a fully functioning part of the facility could be completed.