African Governments are failing to keep their funding promises on sanitation, a new WaterAid report has revealed. The report warns that unless investment is increased, the challenges of urbanisation, climate change and most critically population growth risk turning the clock back on sanitation access even further.
Kroo Bay slum in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 2012, during the worst cholera outbreak in nearly 15 years. Credit: Tommy Trenchard
From 1990 to 2010, the population of sub-Saharan Africa grew by 340 million, however only 130 million people secured access to sanitation over the same period. In total nearly 600 million sub-Saharan Africans – 70 percent of the population – are without access to a safe toilet.
The report, titled: “Keeping promises: Why African leaders need now to deliver on their past water and sanitation commitments,” uses official Government figures from five African Governments – Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Uganda – to show that funding on sanitation is falling short of government commitments across the continent.
In 2008 African Governments signed the eThekwini declaration, which committed them to spend at least 0.5% of their GDP on sanitation and hygiene, and to put in place separate budget lines for water and sanitation spending to improve accountability and track progress. Five years on, only one country, Equatorial Guinea, has been confirmed to have met the 0.5 percent funding commitment.
The report also highlights United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates, that the shortfall in water and sanitation services cost sub-Saharan African countries up to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) each year ($55.6 billion in 2010), more than is provided in development aid to the entire continent ($47.9 billion in 2010).
Nelson Gomonda, WaterAid Pan-Africa Programme Manager said: “Africans waste over 40 billion hours every year looking for somewhere to go to the toilet, and you can add to this the costs of illness and medical bills of those contracting diseases due to the unhygienic conditions. The total costs to African economies could be as much as $55.6 billion per year. Now is the time for African governments to meet their financial commitments on sanitation, and end sanitation and water poverty, and its daily toll on human life, health and livelihoods.”
The WaterAid report also calls on African governments to not only reach their 2008 eThekwini spending commitments of 0.5 percent of GDP, but to go further and meet the 1 percent of GDP sanitation spending recommended by a 2011 World Bank report.
According to a 2012 study, around 400,000 children under the age of five die every year in sub-Saharan Africa due to diarrhoea primarily caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.
On July 10, 2011, the heavens suddenly opened up and, for 16 hours non-stop, Lagos experienced a torrential rainfall that led to loss of lives and destruction of property.
Hadiza Mailafia, Federal Environment Minister
Then on February 13, 2012, an unprecedented storm with wind speed hovering between 75km and 100km befell bustling city, damaging numerous homes, 49 public schools, one administrative building and killed nine pupils when the boat conveying them to school capsized and they all drowned. Curiously, the rainstorm occurred in the middle of February, a month not usually associated with such an extreme weather condition.
“Gone are the days when we could succinctly draw a line between the rainy season and dry season; gone are the days when harvest was predictable and bountiful; gone are the days when select species of certain fish were readily available on the menu table,” said Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) in 2009 at the maiden Lagos Climate Change Summit.
Last year was a national disaster. Numerous communities were overrun by flood as major rivers, swollen from weeks of heavy rainfall and release of water upstream, overflowed their banks. Thousands were displaced and subsequently accommodated at relief camps established at several locations nationwide.
Tunji Bello, Lagos State Environment Commissioner
However, Lagos State did not record any disaster compared to other states, a development attributed to the year–round, state-wide anti-flooding programme put in place by the state government. This year, government has commenced massive dredging, expansion and cleaning of drainage channels across the state in readiness for this year’s rainy season.
Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Dr Anthony Anuforom, subsequently commended Lagos as the only state in the country that had a deliberate and concerted anti-flooding programme in place, which might have been responsible for its less flooding incidences. In fact, he urged other states in the federation to emulate Lagos State.
The agency has warned that the rains will be intensive this year and that communities located along the Niger River basin should brace up for more flood.
NIMET officials gave the prediction recently while presenting the agency’s report of this year’s rainfall expectations. They put the commencement of the rains from February running through June, with a lull between early October and late December across the country.
Babtunde Raji Fashola, Governor of Lagos State
However, this and other related issues will soon be put into perspective at an international forum, courtesy of the Lagos State Government. In what appears to have become a tradition, state authorities are once again confronting the climate change challenge, albeit via a yearly forum that has received global acclaim.
The 5th Lagos Climate Change Summit holds March 13th to 15th, 2013 at the Eko Hotel & Suites on Victoria Island, with the theme: “Vulnerability and Adaptability to Climate Change in Nigeria: Lagos State Transportation, Housing and Infrastructure in Focus.”
Previous events held 24th to 26th March, 2009; 4th to 7th May, 2010; 8th to 10th February, 2011; and 12th to 14th April, 2012.
While the 2009 maiden event had “Reclaiming the Environment: Challenges and Consequences of Climate Change” as its theme, the follow-up in 2010 discussed: “Trans-boundary Effects of Climate Change.” Further, the 2011 summit focused on: “Charting a Road Map for Combating Climate Change in Nigeria”, even as last year’s gathering explored issues related to: “Vulnerability and Adaptability to Climate Change in Nigeria: Lagos State Agriculture, Industry and Health Sectors in Focus.”
All past Climate Change Summits – as well as the upcoming one – have held under the tenure of Governor Fashola, who seems committed to tackling the global environmental scourge in general and the unsavoury impact of the climate change phenomenon in Lagos in particular.
Just like that of 2012, this year’s event will also examine the burning issues of vulnerability and adaptability, which are crucial topics in the global warming discussion. This time around however, the emphasis lay on transportation, housing and infrastructure development, aspects considered high priority in the light of Lagos’ attainment of a megacity status.
Past events have produced a wide range of recommendations which, upon their implementation, appear to have helped to advance the state’s adaptation and mitigation capabilities to the impact of climate change.
For instance, government a couple of years ago declared July 14 of every year as Tree Planting Day in the state. It came under a programme aimed at planting millions of trees to beautify Lagos and also provide a carbon sink. Five million trees have so far reportedly been planted.
Similarly, the government has established the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK) to beautify and regenerate the Lagos environment from the effect of climate change, in the light of the intensity of global warming that is threatening the entire ecosystem. The agency’s effort at establishing gardens and parks all over Lagos has placed her among the notable green cities in the world today. All the Local Government Councils and Local Development Areas have been mandated to create parks and gardens.
Also, in order to address the problem of flooding arising from the increasingly high rainfall pattern, the state has committed to grow the scope and capacity of existing drainage channels in the city and the construction of new ones. Such channels are also being lined with concrete.
Described as a climate change adaptation strategy, the Eko Atlantic City project has likewise been embarked upon by government to protect the Bar Beach shoreline from the persisting ocean surge and coastal erosion. Eko Atlantic City’s “Great Wall” has brought back the coastline of Victoria Island to where it was a century ago before coastal erosion began to wash it away, says Environment Commissioner, Tunji Bello.
He adds: “As a pro-active government, Lagos State Government has devotedly implemented its resolution at these summits in the areas of intensive advocacy, annual massive tree planting exercises, and construction of effective drainage channels to contain flood, improved waste management, recycling programmes, and exploration of renewable energy sources, amongst others.”
Lagos is considered Africa’s fastest growing city, with the projection that, by 2015, it will be the world’s 5th largest megacity after Tokyo. In the light of the theme for the 2013 summit, deliberations are expected to extensively centre on the adoption of: a mass transit module for Lagos, ostensibly to reduce the use of personal cars and curb carbon emission (transportation); green, and environment-friendly dwelling units (housing); and high capacity and multi-purpose roads (infrastructure).
The Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA) has commenced the regeneration of the Isale Gangan area of the state, even as plans are underway to ensure that the nine major blighted areas of the state get a face-lift in the not too distant future.
Model of the new apartment block
The redevelopment project involves 13 families coming together to relinquish their interest/landed property into a common pool for development. They were involved in the planning and design concept/final plan of the project.
Eleven of the 13 families actively participated in the decision to pool the 11 plots of land together to redevelop into condominiums of their choice.
The project comprises a block of 11-floor residential apartments designed to accommodate 56 units of two-bedroom flats on a total land area of 2,500 square metres to be completed in 24 months at a cost of N2 billion. The project cuts across Binuyo, Princess, Onola and Isale Agbede streets on the Lags Island.
It entails the relocation of the affected families to Amuwo-Odofin Housing Estate, which serves as a resettlement accommodation with each of the family being provided with a three-bedrooms flat.
In the resettlement programme, four families collected the flats provided, while nine families, because of the large family size, opted out of the offer and, instead, collected money for two years’ rent from government to seek accommodation of their choice elsewhere.
Each of the 13 families was also paid N100,000 as relocation allowance, while government also paid 90 tenants residing in the buildings a year’s rent of their accommodation at the prevailing market rate.
The contract for the development of the new structure was awarded to the firm of Anatolia International Limited and it has already commenced work on site.
LASURA General Manager, Benedict Kehinde, described the project as a key indicator to the Island’s overhaul, saying it is a model strategy for urban upgrading.
According to him, similar efforts would be made to extend this to other areas that are identified and where the families involved agree to surrender their land for redevelopment purpose.
LASURA, a parastatal under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development (MPPUD), is responsible for reduction and prevention of slums in Lagos State through the implementation of all government policies and programmes on urban renewal. It is statutorily empowered to facilitate the process of improving the living conditions, upgrading and empowerment of the communities thereby creating a sustainable environment.
The Isale Gangan project is fashioned along developments in Sao Paulo in Brazil and other Latin American cities that share similar slum experiences with Lagos.
Before the creation of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in 1976, the area known today as Abuja was a collection of gazetted forest reserves. But they were all cleared during the development of the capital city.
However, fresh efforts to re-green the city have commenced, courtesy of the FCT Administration which during the week flagged-off a tree planting campaign. The FCT Development Control Regulations stipulate that at least 40 percent of all residential plots should be green.
The campaign kicked off with the tree planting and beautification of Airport Road, by Kashton Concepts Limited in collaboration with the Women for Change and Development Initiative.
Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame Patience Jonathan, who was present at the event, said the initiative would provide jobs for over 700 women in the FCT.
She said there is a strong connection between the safety and beauty of the environment, and the quality of the life of the the inhabitants of such environment.
“Tree planting, landscaping and beautification have been confirmed to be anchor of life and health by experts, it is considered to be a major support for every living creature,” she said.
She commended the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, the company and urged other private companies to emulate their gesture.
Mohammed warned those distorting the Abuja Master Plan that they would face the full wrath of the law.
He reiterated that the FCT Administration under his leadership would not compromise the aesthetic beauty of Abuja as the FCT Administration sternly implements the Abuja Master Plan. He stressed that Abuja remains the window through which the world sees Nigeria.
“I must warn all those who deface the environment of our beautiful city and abuse the Abuja Master Plan that the FCT Administration will take adequate and necessary steps to enforce discipline in these areas,” he stated.
The minister revealed that, apart from providing the aesthetic/beautification of the road, the project has already generated employment for about 600 workers who are mostly women.
He added that as the work progresses, another 300-400 youths would be involved in making sure that the project is adequately sustained, noting that it has also provided for the development of a plant nursery on the Airport Road to carter for replenishment of dead trees.
“It is our desire to replicate this type of environmental friendly project in other parts of the Federal Capital Territory,” he added.
Minister of Environment, Hadiza Mailafia, underlined the benefits of urban trees, adding that massive tree planting on every available space in the city that can accommodate a tree is one sure way of not only regaining the vegetation lost over the years, but will at the same time improve the aesthetic quality of the city and enhance its livability and comfort.
She congratulated Mohammed for the initiative, even as she urged the general public to cooperate with the FCT authorities in protecting and preserving the planted trees and the landscape alike.
It was an experience Lagosians would love to forget. They had gone out for their daily endeavours but to return home on Monday night was challenging, no thanks to the heavy downpour and the consequent flood-induced traffic that lasted till the early hours of the next day.
The rainfall, which started around 7.30 pm when most city dwellers were on their way home from work, caused heavy traffic as most of the roads were flooded and, in most cases, impassable for vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
Worst hit were Ikorodu Road, Isolo-Mushin Road, Agege Motor Road, Igando-Ikotun Road, Lagos-Abeokuta Road, Isheri Osun-Jakande Estate Road and several others. The Idi-oro/Ojuwoye was extensively flooded and completely inaccessible.
Although the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NIMET) had predicted heavy rain this year, Monday’s rainfall appears to have attested to the prediction and signs of what is to come in days and months ahead.
Despite repeated calls to clean-up the environment and dispose waste at the appropriate places, many Lagosians seem yet to heed this call.
This writer, who was stuck in traffic during the duration of the heavy downpour, observed that some residents chose that period to dispose refuse openly, thereby compounding the already dire situation.
A trader in Mushin who pleaded anonymity lamented that “it is a very bad habit for people to be disposing their waste into the rain water.”
“It is a common habit for people around Mushin. Once the rain starts, they will now go and bring out their waste. People will continue to blame government. See, is it government that threw these waste into the water? Of course, not. Sometimes you see people throwing pillows and all kinds of stuffs, this is bad,” she said.
She explained that, at a point, residents had to block the drainage in front of their shops because of the kind of waste that people threw into the drainage that ended up blocking the drainage channel and resulting in serious flooding in their compounds.
The thunderstorm also led to the loss of supply from two power stations to the international wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, temporarily halting flight operations at the facility.
The terminal building was thrown into darkness for about six minutes due to a power surge from the two main PHCN power supply sources to the airport. The airport is connected to two main power sources from Ejigbo and Egbin power stations.
The storm initially knocked-off the power supply from Ejigbo which led to a three-minute outage at the airport before the agency’s engineers switched over to the alternate power supply source from Egbin which also was later affected by the storm, leading to another three-minute power outage.
As a way of improving the quality of education in a sustainable way, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is constructing a group of floating schools in Makoko coastal community of Lagos.
Makoko Floating School
The school, whose prototype design was unveiled during a ceremony a week ago, is a two-storey building standing on silt and would be powered by solar energy.
Country Director of the UNDP in Nigeria, Ade Mamonyane Lekoetje, in an opening remark said the UN body was committed to improving the standard of living of people and expressed optimism that the school would change the face of Makoko.
According to her, the children in the Makoko waterfront community deserve quality education in a conducive environment and the floating school project serves that purpose.
She added that through the support of the Lagos State Government the school would attract tourists to see the wonder school floating on the Lagos Lagoon.
Designer of the Makoko Floating School, Kunle Adeyemi, said the school is a sustainable project that would not be affected by the impact of climate change like sea level rise.
This is, according to him, is because the water level at any given time does not affect the school but the school floats without being disturbed. The waste generated in the school would be recycled, he added.
Adeyemi, an architect, called for support in construction of more floating schools in other coastal communities across the country because, according to him, it would help to improve the lives of the people in such areas.
One of the community leaders in the Makoko waterfront community, Chief Francais Agoyon, thanked the UNDP for constructing a school that suits their environment and the needs of his people.
Agoyon stressed that the Makoko people would make good use of the school and called for more of such developmental projects that meets the demand of the people.
He believes that, with such projects in Makoko, the area would attract tourists from far and wide that would enjoy the hospitality of the residents.
Programme Officer of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Paul Okunlola, described the project as a welcome initiative by the UNDP because children in Makoko will not be disadvantaged from accessing quality education because of their environment.
Okunlola stressed that the UN-Habitat was committed to achieving Goal 7, Target 11 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that is in line with upgrading slums across the world.
“Though more slums are coming up but it is a running battle and we are aimed to win the war,” he added.
With less than two years to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline in 2015, the United Nations, state parties and partners have been collaborating towards the development of a successor framework, taking into consideration lessons from the MDGs and the present development realities.
An impression of the revised Abuja cityscape
Consequently, Nigeria a week ago in Abuja hosted a round of National and Thematic Consultations, apparently to get the inputs of citizens on the character and content of the next global development goals. The event was organised by The Presidency, MDGs Office Nigeria and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The two-day forum brought together Nigerians from across different spectrums of the society – government officials and policy makers, the civil society, media, faith-based groups, women and farmers’ associations, as well as the disabled and youths – to explore their perspectives to development realities beyond 2015. This is considered top priority for the country building on the MDGs and other national policies such as the Vision 20:2020 and the MDGs Countdown Strategy.
Some of the thematic topics were: Governance & Accountability, Inequalities, Education, Environment & Sustainable Development, Food & Nutrition, and Health.
Others included Housing & Urban Development, Rule of Law/Human Rights & Poverty, Population Dynamics, Growth & Employment, and Water.
For instance, the session by the Thematic Group on Housing & Urban Development (HUD) that involved about 70 participants was chaired by the Director of Urban and Regional Development in the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing & Urban Development (FMLHUD), Dr. Olatunbosun Ayileka, and deliberations were guided by a lead paper presented by Professor Mustapha Zubairu of the Centre for Human Settlements and Urban Development at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State.
The session was coordinated by the Abuja office of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).
There were two panel discussions by the Special Assistant to the Ondo State Governor on Urban Renewal, Oladunni Oyewumi, and Deputy Director (MDGs) at the FMLHUD, M.T. Babakobi.
Zubairu’s paper highlighted the relevance of the HUD policies to repositioning the sector, as well as advocated innovative and futuristic planning. It was noted that, Nigeria, with a total population of about 169 million, has an urban population of about 48 percent (over 80 million city dwellers), of which up to 66 percent (about 53.7 million people) live in slum conditions, which is believed to be significantly higher than the proportion in most other regions of the world.
It was observed that Nigeria is at the moment far from meeting the goals and targets on issues related to HUD under the current MDGs regime. The group also noted that the issue of HUD was not isolated as a specific item under the current MDGs dispensation but subsumed under MDGs Goal 7, Targets 10 and 11, which focused on improving the status of the urban poor as represented largely by slum dwellers.
Participants described efforts made so far in addressing HUD issues as “winning isolated battles but loosing the real war”, adding that management of Nigerian cities requires confronting the unique challenge of addressing mostly settlements under transition, and that HUD issues have not been properly integrated into the entire MDGs framework.
Upon extensive deliberations with specific respect to determination of Post-2015 Development priorities, the group found that the implementation of MDGs programmes in the HUD sector in Nigeria had the advantage of securing appreciable funding from the Federal Government, especially through the Debt Relief Gains. The programme has, however, not been guided by proper Needs Assessment Studies and has oftentimes been hijacked by isolated “Constituency Projects” for federal legislators, participants lamented.
They noted that while such projects identified critical needs of concerned communities, they are not the best way of articulating all the composite urban renewal and slum upgrading needs of the people in such communities.
“MDGs programme in the HUD sector has been handled as isolated projects and not sufficiently integrated into national development agenda, and there is continuous decay of rural areas due to neglect, thus accentuating the ‘pushing’ of rural areas into the cities.”
They want a change in the attitude of city dwellers to human settlements planning and development, stressing that proper and comprehensive Needs Assessment Studies should be instituted forthwith such that urban renewal and slum upgrading needs of the people will become more robust and comprehensive.
The group suggested that, in view of its cross-cutting influence, post-2015 MDGs should recognise HUD as a separate and distinguishable focus area, even as deliberate efforts at rural rejuvenation should be made.
While clamouring that concerted efforts should be made to strengthen institutional and human resource capacities for HUD, the gathering maintained that physical planning should precede housing development so as to prevent the continuous creation of slums.
“It may be necessary to set up an umbrella organisation to coordinate and exercise overarching monitoring of all projects and activities in HUD, and a programme should be established to address the issue of maintaining basic infrastructural services that have been provided in the communities,” participants emphasised, stressing that the current HUD policies have basic ingredients of transforming these sectors and the provisions contained in these policies should be vigorously implemented to complement ongoing and future MDG frameworks.
They added: “Concerted effort should be made to create and sustain robust information base and data sources for HUD. There is a glaring need to innovate on sources of funding for HUD in the post-2015 era. There is need to take steps to address the growing security challenges by adopting special programmes for engaging the youth in productive ventures and generating employment towards boosting Local Economic Development, which will also enhance revenue generation for cities.”
In what appears to have become a norm, barrels of crude oil have found their way beyond the “safe” confines of a pipeline.
A week ago, yet another round of oil spill occurred in Kalaba community in Okordia clan of Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, leading to widespread environmental devastation.
Crude oil reportedly gushed out from six ruptured points on pipelines belonging to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in the area.
While one of the spurting points was observed across the Taylor Creek, five ruptured points leaked volumes of oil behind the bushes of Kalaba. Some officials of Agip reportedly visited the impacted site on Saturday, February 16.
Residents of neighbouring communities fear that the spewed crude could spread fast as the heavens open up in the restive region.
It is yet to be ascertained if the six spill points were caused by acts of sabotage or from obsolete pipeline.
Nonetheless, the spill has persisted, with oil flowing into farmlands and water bodies, which are local folks’ means of likelihood. The people are mainly engaged in fishing and farming.
This is the fifth reported case of oil spill within seven years in Kalaba, one of the communities through which Agip pipelines traverse in Okordia clan. Following that of 2006, there was a notable spill in 2009 that lasted about two months, in respect of which Agip reportedly paid compensation to some locals. In 2011, the community experienced over 10 spills on both sides of the Taylor Creek. In June 2012, there were fresh oil spills along the pipelines that lasted several days.
Curiously, some previous oil spill sites are deemed not to have been cleaned up till today. For instance, residents allege that those of 2006 and 2011 are still pending.
According to them, Agip officials often deny responsibility if they do not have a copy of the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) report that documents the cause of a spill.
“That is why we always ensure that we get copies of such reports. Sometimes, even when armed with the JIV report signed by Agip, the company denies. An example is one of the spills in 2009,” discloses a resident.
He laments that the oil giant has not impacted the community in any positive way, apart from the negative impacts of oil spills and related oil exploitation conflicts in the area.
His words: “You can never see any project executed by Agip in this Kalaba community. Not even a single scholarship for our children. This is the simple truth and it is very bitter too. I want to appeal to Agip to amend the way it relates with communities, especially in terms of response to oil spills and community relations.”
Observers believe that the firm’s nonchalant attitude may not be unconnected with the somewhat paltry penalty in place for oil spillers.
A call by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) for Agip to pay the sum of N1 million as fine over its (Agip’s) alleged failure to immediately contain, recover and clean up an oil spill at its OB/OB Gas plant in Obrikom, Omoku, Rivers State, drew the ire of Senator Bukola Saraki, who claimed that the fine imposed was not deterrent enough for such offence that has the potential to cause degradation of the environment and inflict long lasting damage to the health of the people living in the community.
The proliferation of laws against oil spillage notwithstanding, the country still lacks a clear-cut law and policy that would checkmate oil companies from abusing the ecosystem. It does not have serious laws meting out punishment to offenders when it has to do with oil pollution especially in the Niger Delta.
Saraki, the Senate Committee Chairman on Environment and Ecology, has since taken up a campaign to tinker with the NOSDRA Act to ensure that oil spillers are severely punished to serve as a deterrent.
Meanwhile, the series of spills in Kalaba is severely impacting the community’s environment and should be urgently addressed. A source said that the impact on trees, shrubs and other plants around the spill sites is grave as they display wilting leaves and varying stages of death.
“Even the birds on tree tops are not spared as the escaping crude oil in gaseous form comes with a characteristic sound and rises far above the trees and spreads all around the environment, presenting a kind of misty scenario that impedes visibility. This may cause forced migration of birds or death of young ones and abandonment of eggs in nests. And, for sure, all living creatures will avoid that environment due to the sound and toxicity of the crude oil. The ecosystem has suffered much assault from the crude oil escaping from Agip’s pipeline.”
Agip needs to urgently mobilise to site and stop all the spill points and follow up with clean-ups. Pending spill sites should likewise be attended to.
The oil firm should effectively monitor its facilities, including the pipelines in Kalaba, to forestall situations where spill incidents continue for days or weeks and months.
While NOSDRA should ensure that Agip cleans up before the heavy rains sets in, the impacted environment should be re-mediated and compensation paid without delay where necessary.
Eko Atlantic, the visionary new city for Lagos, drew high-level presidential praise from both President Goodluck Jonathan and the former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, during a recent
An impression of Eko Atlantic City
dedication ceremony to mark a milestone event.
Describing the development of Eko Atlantic City as an outstanding initiative, President Jonathan said, “This landmark event is continuing the good news narrative that Nigeria must now embrace permanently. You cannot be hearing only ugly stories. Eko Atlantic City is bringing us happiness and this happiness has come to stay.”
Eko Atlantic City’s land reclamation started in February 2008 with a seven-year dredging operation planned to create 8,000 square metres of new land every day.
A year after reclamation work began, the Chagoury Group, the developers and planners of Eko Atlantic City, committed at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York to protect Victoria Island from coastal erosion through the forces of the Atlantic Ocean.
Since making their commitment, the developers have built a sea revetment known as The Great Wall of Lagos that now stands at three and a half kilometres. Half the land needed to build the new city has been recovered from the ocean.
“They have reclaimed five million square metres of land from the sea. They have built the beginnings of this amazing wall. They have kept their commitment and it will help to diversify the economy of Nigeria, to brand Lagos all over the world and to create an enormous number of opportunities. I am convinced that within five years people will be coming from everywhere just to look at the wall.”
The Great Wall has brought back the coastline of Victoria Island to where it was a century ago before coastal erosion began to wash it away.
“This is an ingenious engineering feat,’ said President Clinton, This is something I am telling you there will be countless numbers of people coming here to study. It is something you can be very proud of.”
Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, hosted the dedication ceremony close to the massive sea revetment that protects the five million square metres of land. “When all is done, a new city will emerge here from what was once a devastated area as a result of nature’s onslaught,” said Governor Fashola. “But that devastation is now history. Our ultimate triumph beckons,” he said, “the human spirit will prevail because of the goodwill of a few good men.”
The dedication ceremony was attended by high-ranking Nigerian federal and state officials as well as international developers, financial institutions and the diplomatic corps.
In his address, the Executive Chairman of Eko Atlantic, Ronald Chagoury, said, “Nigeria is a great nation. Building a city of this calibre can only be achieved by putting our hands together. Today we are at a turning point where the real construction of the city has started.” And he added, “Today Lagos is the economic capital of Nigeria. We pray by your blessing Mr. President, to become the economic and financial centre of Africa in the near future”.
The construction of infrastructure for Eko Atlantic, such as roads, drainage and sewage systems has also started as has foundation work for Eko Atlantic’s first commercial tower block. An international developer, Satellite Oil and Gas from Nigeria, has started to build Eko Energy Estate and numerous other projects are in the pipeline.
Upon completion, the developers and city planners of the new city will have produced 10,000,000 square metres of land, ripe for development: equivalent in size to the skyscraper district of Manhattan in New York City.
Eko Atlantic is designed to provide the space and infrastructure to house 250,000 people and become the workplace for a further 150,000.
Before the dedication, management of the city had recently built the first road to compliment the new city high status with gave the city its first internal access road.
The 2.25 kilometre road comprises a single carriageway that is 7.2 metres wide with two lanes. The new road, as yet unnamed, will serve as one of three major boulevards in the Business District of Eko Atlantic. In all, it is planned that 85 kilometres of road will be required to serve the needs of the newly emerging city.
Makoko is a slum settlement that is home to fishermen and other low income earners, which the authorities see as a blot on the cityscape, one that would have to go if Lagos is to attain its much-vaunted mega city status.
Makoko
Last July, government agents moved in to demolish portions of the sprawling lagoon slum, amid claims that the residents were living dangerously – under the high-tension electric wires supplying power to the highbrow Victoria Island and Lagos Island.
With the action being predicated on a notice, which according to press reports was dated July 12 2012, observers felt the government reaction was high handed and a push for it to stop the demolitions soon began.
The Social and Economic Rights Center (SERAC), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), was at the forefront of efforts to get the government to show a more humane outlook to the issue. The demolition stopped, but observers believe that it is only a matter of time before government returns, perhaps with more determination to remove the settlement.
Perhaps with this inevitability in mind, the Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBS) is promoting a scheme designed to address inherent flaws, on the heels of a workshop held last November in Lagos to discuss burning issues. A fresh phase commenced last Wednesday, courtesy of a daylong meeting at Makoko that featured residents and experts involved in the project.
The HBS is a German, legally independent political foundation affiliated with the German Green Party.
Variant of a floating school proposed for Makoko
The November forum centred on climate resilient strategies for environmental design, as well as the plight of the people of Makoko and how it could be best addressed. Numerous presentations were made at the event.
However, a presentation by an urban planner and lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Lagos, Omoayena Yadua, seemed to have met the workshop organisers’ requirement for tenable proposals that could define a roadmap for community engagement to ensure the sustainability of proposed ideas. She laid emphasis on stakeholder involvement/engagement and a bottom-up approach to addressing issues.
She said: “My presentation was on the stakeholders approach and talked about integrated approach to solving climate change problems like flooding. We identified every private citizen, government, corporate and professional angle. We identified that the government alone cannot tackle it, citizens alone cannot embark on solutions and the professional too cannot provide solutions that would not be adopted by both the government and the citizens.
“So we adopted a holistic approach, which was created in a triangle showing arrows connecting the professionals, the people and the policy makers. We proposed that that is going to give us a sustainable solution because the people will agree to what they were involved in. The government is going to be in agreement with a policy they jointly formulated and the professionals – we the planners, architects and others – will be able to learn from the lessons from the people and the past lessons from the government in trying to implement such solutions.”
According to her, the intervention entails involving the end users and the government in whatever changes to be introduced and to ensure they are part of the planning.
“This is because if we design the floating cities and the government does not approve of it, even if the people do, that design is forfeited. But if the designers, planners and the government come together and the government gives its word that it would support the project, success would be achieved. However, if we work in isolation then we can never be sure of success and may end up with a stalemate,” she added.
Last week’s integrated stakeholders meeting sought to analyse the causes of flooding, its effects and possible solutions to flooding in the neighbourhood.
Residents identified the possible causes of flooding; asserting that they had good waste disposal habits and that refuse and filthy environment usually associated with the study area was as a result of the aftermath of flooding. They also said that it damaged life and property and also endangered their health. Business activities are negatively affected thus reducing their economic capabilities, they added.
They proposed the demolition of houses situated on the natural drainage channel, dredging/ clearance of the drainages (canals), weed control and construction of embankments as solutions.
“The points were noted by the urban planners and would be considered when coming up with the set of conceptual plans which would be presented to the residents in a fortnight. Representatives of the Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Physical Planning are scheduled to attend the next stakeholders meeting,” disclosed Yadua.
Kunle Adeyemi’s design of Floating School under construction
At the November workshop, Kunle Adeyemi, whose floating school project was funded through the research stage by HBS, as a social design intervention in Makoko, was on hand to show how interacting with the people in their environment led to the development of his pet project.
From a single flood resilient school now under construction, Adeyemi, an architect, is looking at a significant upgrade of the entire community from stilt buildings to aesthetically pleasing and architecturally conceptualised floating buildings. He said that his innovation would not just transform Makoko from a slum settlement into a modern settlement, but would make it a standard for the rest of the world.
His slides at the presentation showed a different Makoko, one with uniformity and the sort of organised layouts that seem not readily evident in Nigerian cities.
There were other presentations on water-resilient building designs and strategies, as well as proposals for sustainable urban drainage systems, especially of the type that could be implemented on short notice without having to tear down the urban-scape in developing nations.
Just as they did with the floating building concept, the designers and architects came up with various innovative means of flood control in urban areas. The proposals were also developed with cost in mind and utilisation of items sourced from the immediate environment was key.
HBS had called for entries from architects, designers and anyone interested in providing solutions to the specified problem. Of the proposals submitted, nine respondents were invited to be present their proposals at the open space workshop.
Community participation was a critical criterion at the workshop.
Apart from Yadua, other urban planners involved in the project include Taibat Lawanson (group leader), Olabode Orelaja, Akindeju Olayemi, Agwu John, Wole Soyinka (all from the University of Lagos), Lukmon Oshodi (Urban Space) and Aisha Mustapha (Olabisi Onobanjo University).
