Have you heard about the great wall of Lagos? Well, you are about to discover…
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Bar Beach 2014 Showing the Great Wall of Lagos
Bar Beach 2011 showing the Great Wall stretch |
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| Bar Beach 2013 Showing Concrete defence along the coastline |The first time I visited the Lagos Bar Beach was in 1990 with my family in our brown Volkswagen beetle. It was a beautiful breathtaking experience seeing the massive ocean before me after driving from Marina to Ahmadu Bello way. The blue skies and sand dunes, the horses and coconut drinks made it mementos for kids like us then. The beach attracted residents and visitors from outside Lagos. It was the most beautiful place to see nature at the time until Lekki beach emerged and the bar beach was gradually neglected. It is the most popular beach in Nigeria, nevertheless. It stretches from the Institute of Oceanography in the west to the east (Kuramo).
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| Bar Beach 2003 |For more than 100 years the sea has been eating away the shoreline of Victoria Island in Lagos - some 10 metres disappear every year, according to research. In the late 1990s Lagos Bar Beach, gradually lost its aesthetics due to flooding, erosion and the massive concrete works being done along the coastline to mitigate the natural disaster. However, people still loved the beach as other activities like religious rites, horse riding, swimming, beach football and picnic kept the place alive.
Forward to 2009 Eko Atlantic City was planned to become an ultra modern city, intended to be built on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean (including Bar Beach). Already, most of the land has been reclaimed and the first tower is under construction. The proposed development is targeting about 250,000 residents and 150,000 commuters flowing daily to the Island. The “project is planned to return the coast to its position in the 1950s and 1960s, reversing damage done by erosion”. The Eko Atlantic project promises to turn Lagos into a hugely important financial powerhouse.
The Eko Atlantic City project received global recognition in 2009. The launching of the project was flagged off in 2013.
Welcome to Eko Atlantic!
How far has the construction gone and what will be the environmental impact? Read more here
Have you heard about the Great Wall of Lagos or the Eko Atlantic City?
Xoxo
Emeka