Dayo Alebiosu Provides Glimpse Into Huge Cost Of Protecting Lagos Shoreline

The Lagos State Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Dayo Alebiosu has provided a glimpse into the huge cost of protecting the shoreline.

He says it will take hundreds of billions of naira.

Providing a graphic roadmap to the solution contending with growing threat fueled by the nefarious activities of illegal dredgers, Alebiosu explained that ” there are severally things we will have to do. Amongst other things, it is not just a one-shop-stop thing, we have gabions. Lagos state has about 7.3 kilometers of gabion which are rocks that have to be arranged in a particular way.  Eko Atlantic City has also put in place about 7.2 kilometres, in total we have done about 15.5 kilometres of gabion and we have about hundred and eighty kilometers of coastline to place them in. 1 kilometre about several months ago is at the average cost of about eleven billion Naira. Now multiply that by a hundred and 80 kilometers, we are talking huge amount here.”

Alebiosun provided the insight in an interview in December 2023.

“Gabion stone, rip rap, and armour stone used for slope stabilization, erosion control, and shoreline protection” according to a check on the search engine – google.

Added checks revealed that the Lagos shoreline is increasingly becoming eroded largely due to the man-made factor defined as the nefarious activities of illegal dredgers.

Illegal Dredgers are persons who indiscriminately source sand from the waters either to fraudulently reclaim land or stockpile sand for sale.

The activities of these individuals have resulted in the water to the shore that was over a kilometre away to be under a hundred metres close, and in some areas under 50 metres.

Explaining how the operations of the illegal Dreders are negatively impacting the environment, Alebiosu pointed out that “It is natural for wherever has been dredged to have to be compensated for. What happens is that nature sends out water to search for sand to compensate for what has been dredged and the very first point of call is the beaches”.

The top member of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s Greater Lagos Rising Team has since declared an all-out war against this set of people whose illegal activities are ruining the tourism sector and the livelihood of other persons including fishermen and business owners on the beaches.