Worried by the looming consequences of their illegality on the environment, the Lagos State government have read dredger the riot act. However, professionals in the built environment hold different views. They have proferred solution to how the situation can be better managed, OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports
Dredging and reclamation of land have remained exercises which are anti-environment, if not carried out without proper approval.
And with the effects of climate change now becoming a reality, several organisations – private and public, including government – are alert to the responsibility of protecting the environment.
For instance, Lagos State as a coastal city, is deprived of sufficient dry land, making expansion, especially in housing, a challenge. This has also led to the high cost of land in the state.
And with the need to provide housing units to meet the yearnings of the teeming population in the state, reclamation of land from the lagoon for building becomes inevitable.
This is why some governments have put in place guidelines for dredging or reclamation, chief among which is an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
For some however, dredging of the lagoon is for commerce and not development. Across the shoreline of the lagoon, it is a regular sight to behold dredging of sand in crude manual methods. Most of those engaged in this are usually unlicensed.
However, over the years, it has been worrisome for the government, especially in Lagos. It was, therefore, instructive when the Lagos State government recently warned against illegal dredging and land reclamation.
In a statement by the Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. ldris Salako and his counterpart in the Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Kabiru Ahmed Abdullahi, the government stated that it had noticed the increasing degradation of the state shoreline as a result of indiscriminate illegal dredging, reclamation and land extensions into the Lagos Lagoon.
“Of particular concern to the state government are the extensions being illegally carried out at Banana Island and Osborne Foreshore, Ikoyi. The activities of persons who reclaim into the lagoon to increase the size of the land have not only resulted in gross violations of the physical planning laws of the state but also impinged on the ecosystem of the entire area.”
The commissioners noted that the indiscriminate illegal proliferation of dredging and reclamation practices had brought about serious distortion in the aesthetics of the shoreline with high potential for causing environmental degradation, which is can produce dire consequences, if unchecked.
Consequently, the Lagos State Government has put on hold approvals on land extensions into the Lagoon at Banana Island and Osborne Foreshore, Ikoyi. It also ordered the cessation of works, constructions, reclamations and other similar activities for extension approvals granted or being processed at Banana Island and Osborne Foreshore, Ikoyi.
But what could be the incentive for such exercise? Findings have shown that the craze to own properties in such highbrow areas principally is the driver of such acts. For instance, Banana Island has remained the most expensive abode for the wealthy and high networth individuals; same for Osborne Foreshore, Ikoyi. A plot of land in Banana Island, The Nation learnt, cost as much N200 million.
Responding to the stop order notice by the state government and the implication of the illegal dredging and reclamation on the environment, a former chairman of Nigeria Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Moses Ogunleye, explained that when a place is sandfilled or reclaimed, a shoreline in a staccato or unplanned way as done round Osborne Foreshore Estate and Banana Island Estate, the pattern of natural elements like wave, water volume and storm water discharge get affected.
This, he further explained, aggravates backflow of water into those communities as being experienced in Osborne Foreshore with substantial implication for Dolphin Estate, which is on the other side of the road.
He stressed that reclamation by a developer portends danger for the immediate property as wave speed and direction could leave such property unprotected.
“The government have allowed such to take place around the corridor unchecked for too long. It is good the government issued the directive. But how long will it be? I’m assuming that very soon, the moratorium will be relaxed as there will be pressure from some developers. Apart from this area, sand filling and dredging are still going on in other parts of the state. But then the state government is also making revenue from these activities – the dredgers pay some statutory fees.The land reclaimed get regularised and the owners pay for such. I’m aware that there are many people who reclaimed additional land in the affected areas and are yet to pay or regularise their new or additional land,” Ogunleye said.
He cautioned that individuals could not just wake up and decide to increase the size of their land or plot outside the context of physical development plan. He, therefore, advised the government on the need to use the moratorium for stock taking on physical planning, storm water, flood management, shoreline protection and ecotourism resources management.
President, Nigeria Institute of Building (NIOB ), Kunle Awobodu, regretted that dredgers were everywhere in Lagos and that he suspected that the government had lost control.
He also said the government might be helpless because those involved in reclamation and dredging were usually influential members of the society, but added the need for the government to show more concern on what was going on in the environment, not minding whose ox was gored.
He recalled that in the past, the location of today’s “Park View Estate”, an upscale abode in Ikoyi, used to be Ikoyi Park which families use as open space for picnics, especially during festive periods.
“Reclamation and dredging in Lagos didn’t start today, but the government seems unmindful of the environmental implication of such actions because land in those areas are expensive with the government making huge revenue. The implication of these activities are huge and should be addressed as soon as possible,” he added.
Awobodu alluded to the argument that some developers, who reclaimed land around Lekki, built on them. He, however, cautioned that should the government make good its threat, some businesses might run into troubled waters as they might have taken loan facility from banks.
On the economic implication, the NIOB president said if they were stopped several professionals and construction workers would be affected and the government, reduced income. He regretted that not only Ikoyi is reclaimed, but also Oworonshoki.
He advised on imbibing the technology of building in water without dredging and reclamation. He noted that marine and aquatic life style is disturbed at the expense of those who prefer littoral aesthetics by living in the water front.
According to him, to some people it gives them satisfaction and a sense of living their life to the full by living by the sea without a care.
Also, the Chairman, Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors & Valuers (NIESV), Dotun Bamigbola, said the illegal dredging might lead to environmental degradation along the shoreline of the Lagos Lagoon.
“This is part of the responsibilities which the government should take up in ensuring all such activities are in conformity with the approved limit and standard of reclamation. Indeed, the Waterfront or Environment Ministry officials should be present to supervise such activities daily to ensure compliance,” he added.
According to him, one major challenge the government might face is manpower to monitor these activities along the vast shoreline among others.
However, he advised that if they could not do that, this aspect of government function should be contracted to professionals in the built environment to monitor compliance and sign-off on the report that it had been done to standard as approved.
He argued that if this was taken, it would translate to the professionals being liable for any distortion during the period of reclamation, if later discovered by the supervising ministry or agency.
He noted that most housing projects that came up along the waterfront were primarily individual dwellings for prestige and a combination of these would limit the impact to the waterfront real estate market in the estates.
However, Bamigbola noted that if it took longer than six months or a year, it might affect the land value within the estate.
According to him, there are already other forces affecting real estate in the market, which may push back on the effect of this reclamation suspension in the two estates at Ikoyi.
