Yet in a speech on March 6, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama acknowledged that Ghana is “burdened with a major energy and water crisis.” The country’s network of aging water pipes, some of which date back to 1914, does not reach Accra’s expanding and crowded outer suburbs. “Supply cannot meet the increasing demand,” says Kweku Botwe, acting managing director of state-owned Ghana Water. “Investment had stagnated so much over the past 40 to 50 years that you’re no more dealing with the urgent situation, but with the emergency.” Ghana Water can’t account for 55 percent of the water it produces, adds Botwe, because Ghanaians illegally siphon water from its pipes, and decrepit pipes damaged by erosion and construction often burst.