“We had a paved road there before,” said Alegushi. Pointing to the debris, he says, “There were also our electric poles and a health center… you can see the remaining particles.”
The resort’s extinction has paralyzed the Okun Alfa community and its surroundings, and is just one of many losses for the people here, whose neighborhoods are ravaged by a persistent tidal surge by both the climate crisis and questionable urban planning. went.
This is not a sleepy island, but the central business district of Lagos. It is densely packed with residential houses and high rise buildings. The residents of Okun Alpha are concerned that it is not now, but when, that their community will be completely submerged. I
The ocean has consumed Okun Alpha’s vast landscape, says Oladotun Hasan, coordinator of the community’s ocean surge response. It is half the size of a bar. Properties that were nowhere near the sea 10 years ago are now just a few steps away.
“Many years ago, we went hiking to get to the ocean,” Allegushi said. “There was no house near the shore.”
He said that for decades, residents of Okun Alpha have been moving their homes back and forth from the shoreline, as floods and sea level rise eroded the coast they once visited. But there is a limit to how far they can go.
“We don’t have any more land to go to,” Alegushi said.
On the island of Lagos, the beach is also coming close to the palace of Chief Alegushi Atevolara Yusuf, the traditional ruler of Okun Alpha. And this is his new – his old has already been washed away in the sea.
“I lost my palace. You can see that we just built it (the new palace). The former palace is under the sea.”
As the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow enter the most intense phase of negotiations, the funding needed for developing countries to adapt to the climate crisis is proving to be one of the most contentious issues.
The COP26 presidency has called for richer countries to fill the gap and pay their fair share of $100 billion a year by 2020 to adapt to such changes on the island of Lagos for the global south.
Industrialized countries have contributed far more to the crisis than developing countries, yet they have missed out on this goal and although more money is being pledged in Glasgow, it is only deceit.
A problem with management, climate or both?
Another study published in Nature found that by then some of the world’s low-lying coastal cities could be permanently submerged.
But, like so many bad effects of the climate crisis, human handling of the natural and built worlds has exacerbated problems such as dwindling coastlines.
The city is being built on land acquired from the Atlantic, on a former beach on Victoria Island in Lagos.
Similed Ediodun, a Nigerian environmental activist, told CNN that the construction of the Ako Atlantic was making the usual methods of combating sea level rise in Okun Alpha more challenging.
“Land reclamation is a major problem in combating rising sea levels and building resilience,” Adiodun said. “The Eco Atlantic project is moving the waters it was occupying to where they are now reclaiming neighboring coastal communities… so it has increased marine growth in places like Okun Alpha,” he said.
David Frame, managing director of Acko Atlantic, denied that the project was causing these problems.
“Not so,” Frame said in an interview with CNN. “We engaged consultants to design the structure of the sea wall and the reclamation process of Acko Atlantic, and they have monitored that progress from the beginning.”
He explained that the role of consultants was to ensure that dredging contractors did not take sand from the seafloor beyond a point known as the “minus 15 contour”.
“That’s the point at which, if you fall close to the shoreline, you’re going to hit the beach.”
He said that the method used is at par with international standards.
“Therefore there has been no erosion on the beach from the dredging operation.”
But Tajuddin, another community leader in Okun Alpha, doesn’t buy it.
“Acco Atlantic has given us a very serious problem,” he said.
“The sea is troubling us, tearing down houses that are not close to the shore. It just comes and breaks them. Some people built concrete block houses with many rooms but they are now in temporary structures made of planks are sleeping.”
Tajuddin told CNN that a protective barrier put in place by the government 10 years ago has helped dampen the tidal wave in Okun Alpha.
He said, “After several complaints, the government installed breakers in some parts of the sea. Without the breaker, there would have been no one left in this village.”
But looking only at the constraints, it is clear that their construction was never fully completed.
That’s why seawater is still continuously entering the land, Allegushi said.
“The work was stopped. So the water is still pouring in. The government had promised to do more. That was half of it,” he said.
Another resident, Zida Saeed, said Okun Alpha is not safe yet.
Zida told CNN, “When they started the breaker in 2011, the whole idea was to raise it to about 1,000 meters. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to finish the project. If they had completed it, we would have Stay safe.”
Lagos officials did not respond to CNN’s request for comment, but in 2018 a statement from the Lagos state government said that “construction is an ongoing project subject to the availability of funds” and that communities “by paying their taxes”. Urged the government to fulfill its civic responsibility “immediately.”
An official Lagos website published a statement by the state surveyor-general in June stating that Eko Atlantic City is “a unique megacity built on new ideas and innovation for a Greater Lagos that is environmentally friendly and sustainable.”
Eko Atlantic Developers say the project is a way to prevent parts of Lagos Island from being swept away by erosion.
“The best part of Victoria Island, VI Extension, Phase One Lekki, and Phase Two of Lekki are permanently protected by Eco Atlantic,” said Frame of Echo Atlantic.
Nigeria seeks more foreign climate funding
Okun Alpha’s Ocean Rise Response Coordinator Hassan explains that local funding will be insufficient in addressing Nigeria’s climate issues. He also cited the need for the country to access more ecological funding.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, told CNN in a statement that more funding was important to adapt to problems such as a dwindling coastline. This has been an important question from Nigeria in the COP26 talks.
Sherbu said, “We are 100% committed to the overall (goal) of zero-emissions…
“We are already committed to a 20% reduction (in emissions) as a national objective; with funding support, we are on course for 45% or so by 2030,” Shehu said.
Environmentalist Ediodun argued that Nigeria has been unable to obtain sufficient funding for climate adaptation due to “mismanagement” in the country. He is very careful not to say directly where he believes the previous funding allocated for Nigeria’s efforts has gone.
“Due to mismanagement, Nigeria is unable to access sufficient funds that will accelerate our resilience and adaptation projects and programmes,” Adiodun said.
“If Nigeria is seeking support, it should be in terms of scaling up our projects and addressing climate issues.”
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