This could lead to permanent loss of mangroves or other plant species of economic/medicinal importance and habitat for marine organisms and wildlife and their emigration to unaffected areas, thereby upsetting the ecological balance. It is also designed in such a way that it will accommodate massive commercial and residential purposes. Before coastal lands are to be acquired proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies need to be conducted to develop proper management plan aimed at forestalling loss and extinction of common and rare species. This situation thus necessitated the reclamation of coastal areas to create more space for human habitation. The warm shallow waters of the continental shelves are most biologically productive and support the greatest species diversity. The white patches sum up to give a total of 4.2 million m2 of mangroves removed in 1984. Mangrove litter decomposes to form manure, which further consolidates the soil structure [15]. At about 345 people per square mile, it is also the most densely populated country in Africa. People participation is very important in landscape reclamation because it would provide a consensus view on land use to the host community [19]. Developmental activities are carried out in them through collaboration between Lagos state government and private developers. It is the responsibility of the Government to protect the land against illegal landscape reclamations. 2002 NYS Reclamation award . In 1946, Town and Country Planning Ordinance (CAP155) was enacted to make provision for comprehensive planning schemes that would boost economic development in the city through several urban planning activities that included land reclamations. Sites T1, T2 and T3 are the end, middle and mouth of the sand fill area. The uppermost layer or photic zone is 10m of water and absorbs 80% of solar energy, which carries out primary productivity. Narrating their ordeal to Premium Times last year, the residents whose hope of economic survival has been tampered with, have tales of woe to tell concerning their awful experience. The latter is derived from coastal activities such as oil and gas, shipping, fishing, tourism and commerce. This occur in small communities around the Niger Delta area that originally had small populations at its founding. Changes in land form lead to changes in the biogeography of the area. Therefore, the best option is to remediate it so that it will carry out its ecological functions even if it results to another landform. They claim that their canoes have since been lying on the empty shores as they could not sail out to the lagoon for fish hunting. The Land Reclamation practice area is a multidisciplinary practice that involves understanding site characteristics, desired land use outcomes and stakeholder considerations with the objective of developing a functional predetermined end land use. You set a kind of disequilibrium in the environment. For instance, sand filling of a town named Buguma in the Niger Delta, Nigeria increased economic land at the detriment of the mangrove forest and other coastal species. Speaking during an interview with Punch, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan said that the Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA report on the project had taken care of future negative impact on the environment, adding that the Lagos state government, as a responsible government, carried out comprehensive EIA before embarking on massive land reclamation going on in the coastal areas of the state. Ben Ayade for allowing a level playing field at the Cross River North senatorial election of Feb. 25. The procedure attempts to convert unused land into useable land and contributes to the expansion of the land area, the creation of habitat for [] Mangroves provide various ecosystem services such as food, medicine, tools and construction materials. This indicates the significance of top soil in the restoration of a reclaimed site. Luloff, James C. Finley and Donald G. Hodges. Rural areas, which consist mostly of low-density grid cells (<300 inhabitants per km 2 ). Government budget refers to an annual financial statement that denotes its anticipated expenditure and expected revenue generation in a fiscal year. Land reclamation is gradually posing negative impact on man due to unplanned urbanization. The dehydration of the intertidal areas cuts off dissolved oxygen and food supply to aquatic species. Thus in other to expand the land area to accommodate the industrial complex, surrounding creeks were mowed down; sand filled and solidifies to build offices and apartments for workers. by SurefireFashion: 11:32pm On Mar 17, 2017 following Re: List Of Igbo Towns In Nigeria. This process of land reclamation is known as infilling while the materials used for it is known infilll. Segregation: this is when units or communities cluster together based on homogeneity of ideals or goals. However, in many communities coastal lands are protected traditionally if they have cultural significance to the people [1]. Reclamation is carried out by both government and private developers. sea-side resort, roads, houses, light poles and shopping malls. According to him, artificial land reclamation activities have been an age-long war between man and nature, noting that Lagos state government needs to get things right and be careful as the exercise could lead to disastrous consequence. A future gas plant is to be located at the beach adjacent to Edko Town in the eastern part of Abu Qir Bay. Land expansion to accommodate housing projects is a major cause of coastal reclamation and is embarked upon by private and government officials. Canalization is done to enable ships to berth at the wharf, without running aground. I hope they are being done according to the best practices in order to protect the ecosystem., He concluded by saying that: land reclamation for the purpose of constructing properties in commercial quantities is risky.. In a classical case of land recuperation after landscape reclamation at Eagle Island in the Niger Delta, recruitment occurred through natural process within a space of 13years. Regrettably, the space of public opinion can be overtly toxic to the point that cynics, mischief-makers and political opportunist ride overboard. Industry experts are also concerned with the level of compliance with existing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act No. In July 2000, Nigeria's population was estimated at more than 123 million people. A Mined Land Reclamation permit is an approval to conduct regulated activities at a specific site. By, this, the land reclaimed is therefore known as reclamation ground or land fill. The aim of acquiring land varies, but is mainly for possession and or production of goods and services to satisfy socio-economic and socio-cultural needs. If done in an organised manner, I believe nobody will complain. The swamps are scooped away or reinforced with sand and concrete in other to produce a hard surface on which to construct foundations of buildings. Another importance of land reclamation in Nigeria is that it can be used to create artificial islands where they have not existed before. Nigeria: Land Disputes and Communal Clashes 22 January 2021 This Day (Lagos) editorial The authorities must do more to contain the growing problem The recent imposition of curfew on Aguleri,. The country features 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, which is known as Abuja.The country of Nigeria features over five hundred different ethnic groups, many different languages, and declared its independence from the United Kingdom on October 1, 1960. Land can either be physical or economic. Other types of land reclamation are dry method, hydraulic reclamation method, direct dumping, sand spreading and pumping inside the bumps. An example is a nipa palm invaded area. Section 1(1) of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 gives the federal government ownership and . Dredged and sand filled areas in Buguma, Niger Delta, Nigeria. Farms are generally small and scattered and use simple tools and shifting cultivation. Its based on principles of collaboration, unobstructed discovery, and, most importantly, scientific progression. Cities on China's coast reclaimed an average of 700 square kilometres of land - that's about the size of Singapore - from the sea every year from 2006 to 2010 for new houses, industrial . Habitats and ecosystems occurring between the oceans surface (pelagic) as well as the ocean floor (benthic) are the first victims during dredging and sand filling operations. Conversion of coastal environment to terrestrial area through deforestation and solidification to terrestrial environment in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. These activities are economically beneficial to farmers, but inimical to the environment. The second example is another site known as Borikiri in the outskirts of Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State. The swampy environment is a mixture of mud and water, after a long period of perturbation the swampy soil gets solidified and changes to a terrestrial environment. In October 2021, DEC prepared, . This further denigrates the soil structure and converts the aquatic environment to marshy environment. Globally, half of the world mangroves have been destroyed [16] as people have reclaimed those areas as a result of coastal development. The gigantic project, like others, is being done as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between Lagos state government and Orange Island Development Company (OIDC). The Governors of each states of the federation hold the land in trust for the Federal Government, and are entitled to be the sole signatory of all certificate of occupancy (C of O) before a piece of land is legally owned by an individual or group of individuals. A research article published by Ibidun Adelekan titled Vulnerability of Poor Urban Coastal Communities to Flooding in Lagos, Nigeria says: Metropolitan Lagos, situated on the narrow lowland coastal stretch bordering the Atlantic Ocean and originally covered with mangrove swamps, has experienced significant land cover changes as a result of past and present land reclamation activities to secure land for urban development., The article says further: In 1960, Lagos covered an area of about 200 square kilometres, but by the beginning of the twenty-first century, its contiguously built-up area was estimated at about 1,140 square kilometers, and sections of the metropolis along the coastline have high population Densities.. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over part of the Dutch province of Flevolandthe newest province in the Netherlands and one of the largest land reclamation projects in the world. An example is the establishment of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Bonny Island in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Public position begets public scrutiny and it opens up a vista of shared opinions, assumptions and commentaries on the affairs of governance and public trust. In 2013, rainfed agriculture accounted for 380,000 sq km in Nigeria, covering over 40 percent of its national territory . The governments position was contained in a statement jointly signed by the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako and his counterpart in the Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Kabiru Ahmed Abdullahi. Land reclamation impact the coastal environment in several ways (Table 1). A conceptualized reclamation pattern in coastal communities in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. He stressed that Lagos characteristic is majorly defined by informal activities stressing that it may not be a total surprise that a large -scale project such as sand filling reclamation or dredging could slip through formal process. Sand mines are often abandoned after some years of operation. 1. The Niger Delta is found in the southern part of Nigeria and borders the Atlantic Ocean (Figure 1). Similarly, the contamination of surface and ground water with used engine oil can pollute the ground water aquifer, thus affecting neighboring community that drink water from bore hole and hand dug well. Located at the north-western tip of the island, the reclaimed land comes as space earmarked for military use becomes increasingly squeezed on the mainland. Highly placed individuals prefer constructing their houses along coastal areas. The result indicates that Potassium and magnesium had the highest concentration. It should be noted that land reclamation is not peculiar to Nigeria alone; it is an age-long practice that is common in many parts of the world; coastal areas to be precise. There's money to be made in moving land to the right place. We use various techniques to reclaim land and protect shorelines using our state-of-the-art fleet of dredging vessels and specialized equipment. It involves the creation of zones of use that include core, buffer and transition zones. The environmental problem of this practice is that the sand dumped by the shore smothers plants and animals around the area and changes the coast from a marshy to a sandy area. Decrease in water level affect intertidal level especially when areas along the shore receive no water supply and become dry. This is a natural ecological restoration. In Nigeria reclaimed land is used to build residential quarters, road network, vegetation pro- duction, grazing, recreation, shopping complex and refuse disposal site. Sand mining is also done with more sophisticated machines, where pumps are used to convey sand from the bottom of the river unto land via long pipes. Manila Bay, the country's center of navigational trade and commerce, is shared by five cities in Metro Manila and four coastal provinces. Surrounding areas of the swamps are usually dredged and sand-filled to enable it to support the mounting of crude oil well head and the laying of pipelines (Figure 5). 2020 The Author(s). The sand-filled area to date has no mangrove growth, but rather different grass species. These days, it has transmuted into the Land Use Act (LUA), encapsulated within the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. Some small towns, notably Minna, Uyo, Makurdi, Maiduguri, and Bauchi, experienced remarkable growth in population and economy after becoming state capitals. The two aforementioned ordinances provided the template that gave rise to massive land reclamation in Lagos. 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