A city built on water
Lagos sits on a lagoon at the edge of the Atlantic, and much of the city is only a few meters above sea level. Some of it is land reclaimed from the water. Wetlands that used to absorb rain have been filled in and built over.
The sea is rising as the planet warms, slowly but without pause. Higher seas mean rain drains away more slowly and storm surges reach further in. Geography loaded the gun.
Rain meets concrete
Warmer air holds more moisture, so when rain falls, more can fall at once. Lagos has seen this repeatedly: July 2011, the 2017 Lekki floods, and 2022, when floods across Nigeria killed over 600 people and displaced 1.4 million.
But the water's path is decided by people. Blocked gutters, buildings on drainage channels, and reclamation projects all change who floods. The rain is becoming more violent everywhere in the city. The damage is not distributed everywhere equally.
Climate or governance?
Both. And keeping the two separate in your head is a skill this course cares about. Climate change is making extreme rain more common. Governance decides whether that rain becomes a disaster, and for whom.
This distinction is power. If you blame only the climate, no one local is accountable. If you can point at drainage budgets and building approvals with data, you can demand something specific. That is the difference between complaining and organizing.
Hold on to these
- Lagos is low-lying and coastal. Rising seas make every flood worse.
- Warming loads more water into each storm. Governance decides where it lands.
- Separating climate causes from governance causes tells you what to demand, and from whom.
Check yourself
No grades here. If you can answer these out loud, you own the lesson.
- 1.Give two reasons Lagos floods that are about climate, and two that are about governance.
- 2.Why do low-income waterfront communities flood first and recover slowest?
- 3.A flood destroys a market in Ajegunle. What specific questions would you ask before deciding who is accountable?