ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA: Ocean Wreaks Havoc On Shoreline

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jun 5 1998 (IPS) - Traders working along the one kilometre stretch of Bar Beach, near Lagos, are under threat, but not from any government action. Their immediate enemy is the Atlantic Ocean, which continues to erode the Lagos shoreline.

“We are operating here on borrowed times. Nobody is sure when the next surge will come,” says Biola Alebiosu, who sells souvenirs on the beach.

When high tide occurs, Alebiosu says that the traders often run for their lives, leaving their wares to be swept away.

Raphael Kumapaiyi, a town planner and former Vice-President of the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria (TOPREC), also believes that it is just a matter of time before the ocean takes its toll on the commercial capital.

Lagos, he says, has a fragile coastline and it is just a question of time before the city is submerged. “The coastal problem of the city is worsened by the prevailing phenomenon known as global warming and the rise in sea level,” Kumapaiyi says.

The government has pumped millions of dollars for reclamation of the beach to stop the frequent ocean surge which not only damages property along the beach, but also in the neighbouring upmarket Victoria Island.

Between 1996 and 1997, the Ministry of Works and Housing, awarded more than one billion Naira (about 12.5 million U.S. Dollars) to three construction firms for the reclamation of Bar Beach.

Large boulders, littered along the beach, are reminders of the failed efforts to check the frequent ocean surge. Measures to combat erosion of the beach have included intermittent sand replenishment programmes, re-alignment of the three harbour entrance, the building of offshore breakwaters and construction of a sea wall.

But none of these measures have helped. During the past two weeks, the rising tide has caused flooding twice.

“We have notified the Federal authorities of the problem and the danger it poses to lives and property. There is an urgent need for a more permanent intervention by the government to save lives and property,” said Col. Muhammed Marwa, the top government official in Lagos State, after inspecting the damage from the latest flood, which took place on Monday.

Alebiosu, who has traded on the beach for 15 years, wants the government to build permanent walls to hold back the water at the the resort.

Some planning and environmental experts predict that this commercial capital, which is surrounded by water, may be washed away within the next 30 to 40 years, because of the lack of management of its coasts.

The United Nations Environment Fund (UNEP) marked World Environment Day Friday with a focus on the world’s oceans. UNEP’s attention to the oceans also coincides with the world’s Year of Oceans.

According to a UNEP statement, oceans comprise more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface. Two-thirds of the world’s more than five billion people depend on the oceans, which UNEP says are the world’s most polluted ecosystems.