Lagos

Lagos’s Resilience Journey

With an estimated 26 million citizens living in 3,577 square km, Lagos is the cultural and economic heart of Nigeria, the country’s largest metropolitan area and its most urbanized state. Lagos’s prosperity has hinged on its coastal location, as it serves important port functions for Nigeria and the West African region.

Water bodies and wetlands cover over 40% of the Lagos’s total land area, making the city particularly vulnerable to damage from rising sea levels and coastal erosion. This has already led to a decline in water quality, the destruction of drainage infrastructure, and increased incidences of waterborne and vector-borne disease. Coastal erosion has also hurt indigenous communities that depend on coastal resources.

Lagos’s current population growth rate of 3.2% per year, due to natural increase and migration, is fast becoming a significant resilience challenge. Available infrastructure is largely inadequate to serve the current and future needs of residents, resulting in citywide challenges in sanitation, infrastructure, pollution, and poverty.