“We had a paved road there before,” said Alegushi. Pointing to the debris, he says, “We also had electric poles and a health center… You can see the rest of the particles.”
The resort’s extinction has crippled the Okun Alpha community and its surroundings, and is just one of many losses for its people, whose neighborhoods have been ravaged by a persistent tidal surge by both the climate crisis and questionable urban planning. . Gaya.
It 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 worried that it is not now, but when, that their community will be completely submerged. I
Okun Alpha’s vast landscape has been consumed by the ocean, says Oladotun Hasan, coordinator of the community’s ocean enhancement 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 used to go hiking to get to the sea,” 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 have 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,” said Alegushi.
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 old 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 on rich countries to fill the gap and pay their fair share of $100 billion per 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 a hoax.
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 ill effects of the climate crisis, human handling of the natural and built worlds has exacerbated problems such as declining coastlines.
The city is being built on land acquired from Atlantic, on a former beach on Victoria Island in Lagos.
Similde Ediodun, a Nigerian environmental activist, told CNN that the construction of Ako Atlantic was making the usual methods of combating sea level rise in Okun Alpha more challenging.
“Rising sea levels and land reclamation are a major problem in building resilience,” Adiodun said. “The Eco Atlantic project is taking the water it was occupied to where they are now reclaiming neighboring coastal communities … so it has increased marine development 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 beyond a point known as the “minus 15 contour” from sea level.
“That’s the point at which, if you come 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, the leader of another Okun Alpha community, doesn’t buy it.
“Acco Atlantic has given us a very serious problem,” he said.
“The sea is troubling us, tearing down the houses which are not near the shore. It just comes and breaks them. Some built concrete block houses with many rooms but they are now made of planks in temporary structures that are sleeping.
Tajuddin told CNN that the protective barrier put in place by the government 10 years ago has helped reduce the tidal wave in Okun Alpha.
“After several complaints, the government installed breakers in some parts of the sea. No one would have survived in this village without the breaker.”
But it is clear from looking at the obstacles that their construction was never completely completed.
This is why seawater is still continuously entering the land, Allegushi said.
“The work had stopped. So the water is still coming. The government had promised to do more. That was half of it,” he said.
Another resident, Zida Saeed, said Okun Alpha was 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, they would have We would be 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 the community “does not pay its taxes”. by paying”. 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.
Frame of Eco Atlantic said, “The best part of Victoria Island, VI Extension, Phase One of Lekki and Phase Two of Lekki is permanently protected by Eco Atlantic.”
Nigeria seeks more foreign climate funding
Okun Alpha’s Ocean Rise Response Coordinator Hassan points out that local funding will be insufficient to address 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 the Nigerian side in the COP26 negotiations.
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 to 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 the previous funds allocated for Nigeria’s efforts have 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.”