The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) said Lagos Island faces being drowned by 2050.
NIHSA Director-General, Engr. Clement Nze, raised the alarm on Wednesday at a news conference in Abuja where he explained that the looming threat is a function of the dredging, and land reclamation by developers and Lagos State government in areas such as Banana Island and Lekki ,saying the practice would backfire big time on the residents and properties.
According to him: “There is a prediction that Lagos Island is one of the fastest sinking cities that might go down in about 2050. There are about 10 such cities and Lagos is one of them.
“There are so many activities taking place in the Atlantic, such as creating more megacities like Banana Island and Lekki. They are dredging or sand-filling these places.
“You go into the Atlantic and begin to pump sand. As you are pumping sand, you are reclaiming part of the ocean to create land on which you begin to build. Through that dredging or sand filling of the ocean, reclaiming so much portion of the land, you are interfering with the natural echo system.
“They may have done their environmental impact assessment study. If they are bringing any facility or structure into an environment, they are supposed to do a study that will give you an idea of how that environment is going to react by way of imposing something new on it.
“You are pumping sand from the Atlantic to reclaim part of the Atlantic and then going ahead to put up structures or create new cities or communities.
“It is going to have an aftermath effect by your interfering with the natural environment. The ocean is dynamic. As you pump, things are happening.
“Can you imagine what would happen if the kind of rain that fell on the 16th of July happens again two days later? Instead of water from the upland flowing into the ocean, there will be a backwash from the ocean because it cannot swallow the water because the place will now be below the ocean level. It has a negative impact for Lagos, particularly places like Banana Island, Lekki, etc.”
