Eko Atlantic: The Making of a Future City

The Great Wall of Lagos surrounding Eko Atlantic should be a sight to behold

Embedded in the core of a project described by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka as “rising like Aphrodite from the foam of the Atlantic” is a functionality that does not only protect but also enhances the value of its environment, writes Demola Ojo

Penultimate Thursday, former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, was joined by President Goodluck Jonathan, Lagos State chief executive, Governor Babatunde Fashola and former governor, Bola Tinubu to formally unveil Eko Atlantic City in what was described as a dedication of the project. From that time till now, those who before then had taken the venture with a pinch of salt suddenly sat up and took notice.

For some cynics however, Clinton’s visit was just meant to put gloss on a project that many fail to either understand or appreciate. “It is just for them (the ruling class). What’s the point of erecting new structures on water when numerous places in Lagos still need development?” is a common retort, in reference to the price of a plot of land which presently stands in the region of N450 million.

What the Project Is About
For those still in the dark about what Eko Atlantic City is about, here’s a brief recap: The planned city is being constructed on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean along the Lagos Bar Beach. It is expected that when completed, the new island will be home to about 400,000 residents, with a daily flow of 250,000 commuters.

Adjacent to Victoria Island, Eko Atlantic is being touted by its proponents - South Energyx Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of the Chagoury group specifically created to undertake the development - as the next generation of property in Africa, which will in turn transform Lagos into the economic hub of the mother continent.

Expected to be around 10 square kilometres (“We’re not building an estate, we’re building a city,” according to a spokesman for South Energyx,)  the city will satisfy needs for financial, commercial, residential and tourist accommodations with a state-of-the-art high-tech infrastructure in line with modern and environmental standards. These standards will offer the city’s residents modern water, waste management, security and transportation systems as well as an independent source of energy generated specifically for the city.

Necessity, the Mother of Invention
This grandiose plan unsurprisingly attracts derisive reactions from some quarters, like the example given in the first paragraph of this write-up. There’s a catch though. Rather than being a vanity project, the new city is, in fact, very functional and has been deemed a necessity. In essence, the very survival of Victoria Island and its environs depend on it, if you believe what the state government has always said about the project.

Not too long ago, as recent as the beginning of this century, the Ahmadu Bello Way in Victoria Island was occasionally flooded during the rainy season, causing loss of property and inducing fear in the populace. It seemed a matter of time before the ocean ate up swathes of Victoria Island in spite of the valiant efforts by authorities over the years the stop the surge by sand-filling.

Between 2003 and 2005 however, South Energyx in conjunction with the DHI Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark conducted tests on the sea defence system. Models were successfully tested for one in a hundred-year ocean surge, one in 120 years, one in 150 years and one in 1,000 years storm, the worst storm that it is estimated can possibly happen in the area.

Assuaging Fears
It is expected that along with a colossal project like this are sceptics who believe it won’t see the light of day. One of the concerns is the fact that Lagos is “battling a force of nature as powerful as the Atlantic Ocean.” But it seems there wouldn’t be repercussions. The response of the Eko Atlantic team is simple: All they are doing is reverting to the shoreline that existed about a hundred years ago.
According to an insider who craved anonymity, the construction company that built Banana Island, the Chagoury-owned Hitech, is also constructing Eko Atlantic. “I can tell you that if anything, this is a more stable location because while Banana Island was sand-filled, Eko Atlantic is land that is just being recovered and reversed to its rightful state,” he said.

Apparently, the reason why the ocean ate up so much land as to threaten Ahmadu Bello Way was because between 1908 and 1912, the British colonial authorities constructed three breakwaters around Bar Beach, to ease the movement of ships into the Lagos Harbour.

These breakwaters ultimately disrupted the natural flow of the ocean and set up tidal action that would, over the next century, erode more than one kilometre of Bar Beach coastline.

The Great Wall of Lagos
A question that arises is; what stops the ocean from eating up the reclaimed land like it has done over the past century? Enter the dramatically named Great Wall of Lagos.

When complete, the Great Wall of Lagos will be over 8 kilometres long and will be topped by 100,000 five-ton concrete blocks which interlock loosely to form an effective barrier that dispels the force of the waves and provides the primary armoured sea defence. It will rise nine metres above sea level and - from scale drawing at the showroom of Eko Atlantic at the Bar Beach, Victoria Island - will almost encircle the new city. It would be a sight to behold. Bill Clinton agrees.

“I am convinced that within five years, people will be coming from all over the world to see this wall,” he said alluding to the tourism potential inherent in the emerging city. Presently, the Great Wall has gone past the halfway construction stage at 4.5 kilometres in length and is growing at the rate of about six metres a day.

Unique, But Not out of the Ordinary
At the dedication ceremony of the Eko Atlantic Ccity mission, Governor Fashola said: “While many may see only the civil works and engineering project and the sign of an emerging Eko Atlantic City project, I see much more than that.

“I see the symbol of man’s undying spirit in Lagos to conquer nature. This is because the ability of human civilisation to survive and prosper on this planet has been the story of the constant battle against nature. Many times over, the human spirit has triumphed. The symbols of that triumph are many across our planet.

“The airplane is one of them. The Panama Canal is yet another. The European Tunnel is another. The Pyramids of Egypt remain an intriguing model of global edifice that stands as brand testimony of the indefatigable depth of human capacity for survival,” he stated.

Added to these feats of man versus nature is one closer to the issue at hand; reclamation. Apparently, examples of cities where a similar process has taken place abound. They include large parts of the Netherlands, large parts of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, parts of Dublin, Ireland, parts of New Orleans (which is partially built on land that was once swamp), much of the urbanized area adjacent to San Francisco Bay, including most of San Francisco’s waterfront and financial district, Mexico City (which is situated at the former site of Lake Texcoco), large parts of Monaco, 25% of Hong Kong Island, Mumbai, India and loads of individual islands, one of which the Burj al Arab Hotel in Dubai lies on.

Hopefully, this ambitious project will see the light of day and apart from being home to affluent Nigerians will also – like Clinton said – attract tourists to see what has been described as “the world’s  biggest ongoing civil engineering scheme” being pulled off in the world’s most populous black nation.

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