Daily Independent (Lagos)
2 December 2008
A substantial part of the highbrow area of Lagos State may go under in the next fifty years if the predictions of experts in oceanography are anything to go by.
The coastal shelf of Victoria Island is at present barely two metres (six feet) above sea level. A remarkable percentage of 15 million Lagosians see Victoria Island and its satellite peninsula, Lekki, as the best part of the State to invest in, and obtain superlative returns in real estate. Yet rising at a pace of one-metre per fifty years, the ocean surge may herald Armageddon for the city. Same goes for the Bayelsa State, a state with vast mangrove creeks which is host to multinational oil producing companies.
In an interview with Reuters, Stefan Cramer, a Nigeria director of Germany's Heinrich Boll Foundation, a think-tank who doubles as adviser to the Nigerian government on climate change observed that for half of the 15 million people in Lagos to live barely two metres above sea level puts the city more at risk than any other in the world. Cramer had, on behalf of the visiting president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Horst Koehler, made a representation to Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos State that Nigeria and African countries with coastal shelves should begin to take the dangers posed by global warning more seriously.
Mr. Stefan Cramer may not be the first to sound the alarm on the imminent doom that may come as a consequence of not paying attention to environmental challenges as it relates to ocean surge. Foremost oceanographer, Professor Frederick Apati had made similar predictions in 1990 that Victoria Island, Lagos, may be liable to sink in the future on account of ocean surge and climate change.
What has been the reactions of government to these posers at both State and Federal levels? Statutorily speaking, coastal and continental shelves come under the suzerainty of the Federal Government even though littoral states directly face the environmental impact.
The Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Muiz Banire, claimed there is no cause for alarm as government has taken measures to pre-empt and guard against global warming and ocean surge. Such measures include the continuing shoreline protection, the Eko Atlantic City project which covers a substantial part of the Lekki Peninsula and Victoria Island shorelines, the preservation of lots of wetlands to absorb water in the unlikely event of ocean surge, the building of new as well as the dredging of existing canals and channels as de-flooding mechanisms, the acquisition of emergency de-flooding equipment, the accelerated planting of trees to absorb carbon emission, the ban on the burning of refuse, the increased reliance on usage of renewable solar energy by the state, the emphasis on multi-modal transportation through the establishment of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), expansion of water transportation channels and other measures taken to curtail carbon emission thereby reducing the risk of global warming.
Quite laudable as these steps are, would they constitute reasonably sufficient measures to prevent disasters as might be occasioned by ocean surge? We do not think so. The sheer disregard for basic environmental principles in developing residential estates is very rampant in the way we plan our towns and cities. Elsewhere in the world such areas are at best developed for hotels gardens, parks, swimming pools and less frequented facilities. For Nigeria to have massive development of official and residential property in such an area shows our propensity for lawlessness, a misguided tendency to display our ill-gotten wealth in a manner that advertises our ignorance of sociology, geography as well as our proclivity for unbridled philistinism.
Most coastal cities in Africa like Maputo overlook the Indian Ocean. They do not have properties developed in their coastlines not to talk of building residential houses. They probably have learnt a lesson or two from the history of ocean surge and the resultant disaster in those areas. But ocean surge is neither the exclusive preserve of the Indian Ocean nor that of other continental waters. The Atlantic, too, has such a potential.
Much as one would commend the Raji Fashola administration of Lagos State for taking matters relating to the environment very seriously, there is still a lot to do with regards to the enforcement of environmental and town-panning laws. It is unacceptable that most of the properties in Lagos were developed before obtaining government's approved plan. Around Fagba in Iju, a Lagos suburb, for instance, it is a common to see properties developed right into the ravine. Should there be a natural disaster such as earth tremor or earthquake, the damage will be incalculable.
Not that expert advice has been in short supply from institutions such as the Nigerian Institute of Marine and Oceanography. But how has such advice been taken? Undoubtedly, with levity!
To prevent avoidable disasters of unimaginable proportions government at both state and national level must make concerted efforts to see that the citizens maintain a good relationship with the environment.
The National and State Governments must rise up to the challenges posed by issues relating to the environment and be proactive. In view of the magnitude of what is at stake, there is no alternative.
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