A 5-mile island built to save Lagos’s economy has a fatal design flaw

By Mimi Onuoha

The key to understanding Lagos, Africa’s most populous city, is in the water.
From the sea Lagos rose, from humble port city to economic and political powerhouse and sprawling home to around 22 million.
It’s the water that the city is named for—“Lagos,” from the Portuguese word for lakes. Many of the poor, who make up 70% of the city’s population, live in floating shanty slums in the city’s lagoons.
It’s also the sea that has been responsible for Lagos slowly sinking.

Lagos consists of a mainland and a series of islands, which make it especially susceptible to rising sea levels. It is this proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, combined with risks from climate change, that pose the largest environmental threat to the megalopolis.
Lagos is composed of a series of islands and peninsulas.

And since 2008, it is to the sea that an ambitious development company has looked for an unorthodox fix to the problems that plague Lagos including joblessness and housing shortages: a brand new city, built on land clawed back from the bottom the ocean floor.


Eko Atlantic is the name of a grandiose project to create a new economic capital for Africa—notably, right next to the current economic capital for Africa. The development includes everything from sky-scrapers to luxury apartments, a new financial district, a private power-grid, and a shopping boulevard in the image of New York’s Fifth Avenue.
It’s the brainchild of the Chagoury brothers, two Nigerian-born billionaires of Lebanese descent who own South Energyx Nigeria Ltd, a real estate development company created to build out Eko Atlantic.
Eko Atlantic is meant to be an antidote to Lagos’s deepest recession in 30 years. The city is meant to bring 250,000 new jobs and address a housing shortage brought on by a surging population. This, and the fact that it’s privately-funded, have lent it the support of the state and federal governments. It’s being sold to investors as “a valuable foothold in Africa” one of the world’s last emerging growth markets.

But what makes Eko Atlantic’s development especially noteworthy is its location. The planned city borders Lagos directly. Eko Atlantic was built by dredging up and filling in 9 kilometers (about 5.6 miles) worth of land. Before the project began in 2008, the peninsula was non-existent.


The result is that Eko Atlantic has the appearance of being an island created out of thin air. Satellite imagery highlights just how dramatic an effect the construction — which is far from finished — has had on Lagos’ coast.


Lagos’ location leaves it deeply susceptible to rising sea levels and catastrophic storm surges. In 2012, a storm surge in the exact area of Eko Atlantic’s construction killed 16 people. In the aftermath of the tragedy (which some blamed on disturbances caused by Eko Atlantic’s building) the developers of the project highlighted the fabrication of “The Great Wall of Lagos”, a sea wall that wraps around the city and protects it from the effects of the surrounding Atlantic.

But according to some climate scientists, the same wall that will protect Eko Atlantic could worsen the situation for neighboring areas not protected by it, which includes much of Lagos. Dr. Alan Blumberg, renowned for his research and the effects of climate change on water structures, highlighted the challenges in a phone call.

“What happens when you build a wall is that the approaching storm surge will come up to the wall, and it will move to the left or right of the wall, searching for a weakness or a low spot. If there are two islands close to each other, it may go to the island next door instead.”


There were no responses to requests for comment from the team behind Eko Atlantic.

But for Lagos, a city composed of a series of islands, the situation Blumberg describes could be disastrous. Lagos’ surrounding areas are not only unprotected by the wall, but are lower in sea level than Eko Atlantic. It’s a combination that leaves the old city of Lagos and its hundreds of years of history startlingly vulnerable.

If the critics are correct, Eko Atlantic might provide parts of Lagos with yet another link to the sea, one rooted in potential danger and unknowable risk. To the sea parts of the city may return.


“With sea walls, you have to figure out what you’re protecting against,” Dr. Blumberg advised. In the case of Lagos and Eko Atlantic, the better question might be who gets the protection.

source

kateskitty:
I'm saving up to buy the Volkswagen Arteon which could replace the Passat next year.
http://syberkart.com/blog/behold-volkswagen-arteon-replace-passat-next-year/

PaperLace:
Is she supposed to be sad?

Una say both genders are equal, then create special thread when woman drive Uber. Shebi na still pedals the car get?
'and her passengers are humans, not zombies...

GERALD710:

You do know Nairobi is not even the richest county in Kenya,Right
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Similar cities
Mombasa
Nakuru
Eldoret
Kisumu
in that order.

Ajehswag:
guy why u dey lie na.. make una just admit say 9ja na trash and stop defending this shithole filled with corrupt greedy leaders and backward arewa youths that don't know how to do any productive thing rather than to bomb for their allah

sindrek:
We don't save to upload any pics to sure Nigeria is way ahead, just allow the little Kenyan boys continue talking.

Just because your country has started one or two projects you come here talking up and down.

If not for Nigeria who would know Kenya?

You mention bokoharam, what of al shabab in your country, what of all the numerous rapes and extra marital affairs reports we here about Kenyans .

What about the west gate shopping mall attack in Kenya? Wasn't that a terrorist attack if you ever heard of such attacks in Nigeria.

My friend web Nigerians speak shut up listen and learn, have you been to Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Calabar.

Don't come here shouting Nairobi this Nairobi that after Nairobi which other city is developed in Kenya? None

Kenyanstar:
Nairobi The city that never sleeps

Kenyanstar:
Kenya has superb housing at affordable rates

seunny4lif:

Mr go hustle and stop hating jooor
You go do pass him if na you

eezeribe:
Citizens of consumer Nations are always the first to Review...

While citizens of producer nations don't even care so much...

ladypearl45:
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Encrypted:


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Genea:
Mmmmmmm, I'm so speechless... Well said!!!

freecocoa:
What do I have to do with it?
One day, a man would also be the first to birth a baby.
Make una continue.

Chidex2442:

The school matters

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Mind you cell biology is just a small part of biochemistry....... Don't mix that up any day..... Big congrats to them though......

feyilag:
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freecocoa:
Something two women did, na him one man do and the whole of Nigeria no hear word again, smh.

Anyways, congratulations to them girls.

fulfilled2016:


CAPITAL INTENSIVE is an excuse, starting with what you have is the solution, I started small with what I have, not what I ought to have to start.
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Yet, I had just 5k as my all in all left after an HYIP scheme collapsed less than 3months ago. Now, the story is different.

peterjero:

Bros na brain, I had 0 naira in my account by October by December even after I was scammed 460k I cleared all my debts and have more ready for 2017 business.

ladyF:
Hmm.... Video is okay sha.

Click 'like' if you liked it. Click 'share' if you think it's just there

It's LadyF again

AntiWailer:
Rubbish design.
I can't enter a car that from afar they will think it is Elantra.
Done with Toyota since. They lack innovation.
Kia Optima Interior is competing with Toyota 2018.
So sad.

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The base price is N160m.. however, the full option could cost north of N250m. I see this being the only reason some Nigerians will buy this ride.

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The clock on the dashboard of this car cost N78m.. How many cars will this clock buy sef? Abeg, help me count.

5. The Bentley Bentayga comes with cool and clean features:

Remote engine start, Hard Disk Drive Media Storage, Wifi Hotspot, DVD, Contrast Stitching... the list is endless.

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Deriving its name from a mountain range, this ride will definitely go anywhere from the clean roads in Abuja.. to the floods of Lekki.. to the gullies in Nnewi.

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geopreneur:
It's a gift from the chinese govt. to the African union.

China funding that project was just an investment. It's probably a strategy to motivate/compel African leaders to give them more rooms to invest in the continent.