Lagos battles Atlantic erosion caused by building new suburb

10 July 2019 - 09:00 By AFP
The Eko Atlantic project in Lagos. Tidal erosion has swept away more than 25 meters of land at the Alpha Beach shoreline, once an attractive affluent strip of the Lagos coastline.
Image: Moise Gomis/AFP

Sprawled around a lagoon, Nigeria's frenetic economic capital faces a threat from the Atlantic on its doorstep. Can Lagos hold back the waves?

The ocean has pounded the soft, sandy shoreline on a timescale far surpassing human history, but now its waves spell a major threat to the city and its booming population.


Global warming, according to a World Bank study in March, is causing the Atlantic to invade Africa's western coast by up to four metres a year, badly hitting some economically vital areas.

Attempts have been made to defy the ocean - but critics say they have sometimes just led to new problems. In particular, a high-end construction project called Eko Atlantic has divided opinion.

Launched in 2007 by billionaire investors with strong political backing, the scheme has been billed as a Dubai for Africa - a hyper-luxury enclave of skyscrapers built on land reclaimed from the seas.


Surrounding it is what the developers call the "Great Wall of Lagos", a barrier of rocks and five-tonne concrete blocks intended to run for 8.5km, designed to withstand the worst storms the Atlantic can throw at it.


"Today, Lagos is already seeing the benefits of the Great Wall. Once flooded roads are now passable and abandoned properties have been reinvested," Eko Atlantic's website says.


Around 12km to the east, landowner Wasiu Elegushi says the Eko Atlantic has caused devastating changes to coastal currents, destroying his small middle-class neighbourhood Alpha Beach.

Since construction began in 2007, locals and researchers say displaced currents have washed away more than 25 metres of land from the shoreline. "Before Eko, we had nature, palm trees and coconut trees," Elegushi said. "The water started to rise. Everything has been washed away."



"The way the tides would react to the wall was clear to anyone who understands this," said Tunji Adejumo, an ecologist at the University of Lagos. "It shows that the promoters had no consideration" for the rest of the coast, he said.

Eko Atlantic did not respond to questions about the impact of its construction.


With more than 20 million residents - no one knows its exact size - Lagos is also one of the world's fastest-growing cities. The city has long been vulnerable to flood surges, but environmental safeguards are weak.


An extensive impact study for the state government shows that the once-smooth ocean floor now has gigantic holes up to eight metres deep, some of them perilously close to the shore.




"Several communities (in the city) have already been swept away. If nothing is done, Lagos will be submerged by 2050," Chief Ede Dafinone, president of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation has cautioned.


On Alpha Beach, people are gloomy. "People have land here but don't even build on it; they're afraid," said Bobby Isowshe, who sells refreshments on the beach. "The businesses don't really do well anymore."