Story by Dili Utomi.
It is scientifically recognised that global warming is the major cause of higher water levels which ultimately leads to coastal and other kinds of erosion, but that is never the whole fact as there exist other causes of coastal erosion.
The depletion of the ozone layer as a direct result of human activities and the additional effects of the release of carbon monoxide which incidentally is also as a result of human activities are the major causative factors that have elected to put our planet in a perilous situation.
The ozone layer is in the higher part of the atmosphere called the stratosphere, it is the life preserving layer because of its protective characteristic of preventing the direct rays of the sun from hitting the solid part of the earth mostly populated by humans, flora and fauna aside the great water bodies. The depletion of this layer through the use or release of certain gasses such as chlorofluorocarbons is a major contributory factor to global warming.
Again, the release of green house gases such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide which help in trapping the heat of the sun on the lower part of the earth is a major factor in keeping our planet warmer with the attendant effects on natural and human activities.
These preambles are needed because of my small experience a few weeks back on my trip to the coastal town of Seme, a border town in Badagry, Lagos which serves as the entry/exit point for people coming in or going out of Nigeria.
A major human activity which contributes to global warming is the destruction of forests and green areas. Trees release oxygen as waste while taking up carbon dioxide as its life support and so the more trees are felled, the more carbon dioxide we have in the atmosphere and ultimately, a warmer atmosphere.
I already knew as a child who grew up in Lagos that Lagos State is a coastal area lying about three metres below sea level and that a large chunk of its land had been submerged under the Atlantic Ocean, but the unstoppable continuous nature of this effect is what has been so baffling to me. More so, as I have found out, there are more human activities all over the world and also in Lagos that are contributing to more areas being being taken over by the sea.
We also know that a large part of the large area now known as the Eko Atlantic City was hitherto submerged and then reclaimed by the Lagos State government, it used to be the merry making beach where we used to call Bar beach in the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties until the Ocean took over and the Lagos State government had to reclaim it.
Now, aside the earlier enumerated reasons for global warming, land reclamation which is the order of the day in Lagos is also a good reason why we have coastal erosion.
Crucially too, dredging and sand mining which is a big business for construction is also a very good reason why the coastal State of Lagos is really under the threat of submerging under the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, most beaches along the coast of Lagos State have been washed into the sea and as I realised on my trip to cover a media event at Seme then, the whole stretch of the beach had also been washed in. As I whispered to a few ears at the site of the ‘destruction’ then, “the last time I swam on this beach almost thirty years ago, the shoreline was about 100 metres away from where it is now”.
The erosion was so bad that the road constructed by the Nigeria Customs Service and parallel to the sea is now half washed into the sea, the Customs Area Controller of the Seme Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Timi Bomodi in his obvious concern deliberately took us to the beach to see the effect of the Ocean so that we can highlight the effect of sea water on the coast.
This writer has been a keen watcher of events as it concerns the effects of global warming, but it is time that humanity starts taking concrete action and stop the long talks so that we can preserve our planet for posterity sake.
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