The African nation of Nigeria is experiencing many familiar problems in our age of clime change : rising sea levels , storm surge , devastating flooding . Now its coastal city Lagos is go to outrageous lengths to protect itself , both environmentally and financially , by building an only Modern city the size of Manhattan between it and the ocean .
The multi - billion - dollarEko Atlanticdevelopment claims it will safeguard against coastal erosion , “ transform[ing ] nation turn a loss to the superpower of the ocean into an ocean - front city that will be one of the curiosity of the 21st century . ” It also bill itself as the economic catalyst that will nudge Lagos into the category of a unfeignedly global megacity , cause it the “ new fiscal epicenter of West Africa by the yr 2020 . ”
Over at The Guardian , however , Martin Lukacs calls Eko Atlantic“climate apartheid ” build by “ cataclysm capitalists . ”These investors , he claim , are using the scourge of mood alteration as a rationality to build what ’s essentially a closed - off , financially unobtainable city that will only “ save ” the people who live there :
Eko Atlantic is where you could start to see a possible future – a sight of privatized green enclaves for the ultra rich ringed by slums lack water or electrical energy , in which a extra population scurry for depleting resourcefulness and protection to fend off the coming floods and storms . Protected by guard , guns , and an insurmountable gully – real estate Price – the rich will shield themselves from the turn out tides of poverty and a sea that is literally rise . A world in which the full-bodied and muscular exploit the spherical ecologic crisis to widen and entrench already extreme inequalities and seal off themselves off from its impact – this is climate apartheid .
Developers are presently cease construction on the artificial island the urban center will sit upon , including a 1.8 mile - long breakwater knight the “ Great Wall of Lagos . ” It is one of the largest civic engineering project in the world .
Meanwhile , the officialwebsite for Eko Atlanticpromises a walkable community with bureau towers , Rosa Parks , and out-of-door restaurants . There ’s a marina that would be not at all out of place in an episode of Miami Vice . A “ spectacular cardinal avenue … similar in size to the Champs - Élysées in Paris or Fifth Avenue in New York ” will run down its center . There will be living accommodations for 250,000 house physician and chore for 150,000 more .
It ’s unclear , however , who exactly those 250,000 residents will be . 70 percent of Nigeria ’s citizens livebelow the impoverishment line . For about 100,000 citizen of Lagos , sites like this are home :
The Makoko Floating School designed by NLÉ in Lagos ’s Makoko slum , photograph byIwan Baan for NLÉ
The Makoko slum — where people live on gravy boat and stilted homes in a lagoon — is only about a geographical mile away from Eko Atlantic . part of this slum area and other communities like it have already been demolished or forced to relocate due to development . Some take that Eko Atlantic ’s construction and dredging have even made the coastal upsurge bad for these float neighborhoods .
While a roadblock island would likely help protect the city from a storm rush ( we ’ve seensimilar solution proposed for New York City ) , this particular estimation of a massive privatized growth designed for millionaire and their corporations seems particularly insensitive to solving the big progeny around climate change and inequality in Lagos .
https://gizmodo.com/how-to-protect-cities-from-sandy-like-storms-its-all-1454163571
Fueled by oil wealth , Nigeria will soon eclipse South Africa as the largest African economy ; Lagos is already consider to be the second - magnanimous urban center in Africa . Eko Atlantic claim that it will help to entice more attention to the greater metropolitan field , creating a new fiscal superpower . That it certainly will — Eko Atlantic will rise up over the next decade , its towers filled with investors run a risk on the growing economy , while the residual of Lagos easy submerges around it . [ The Guardian ]
Update : An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that 70 percent of Lagos ’s residents be in floating slum , when in fact , about 100,000 residents do . According toUNICEF statistics , 70 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line .
All image except Makoko via Eko Atlantic
CitiesClimate changeurbanism
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