Within the framework of the West Africa Coastal Areas (WACA) Management Program, the Nigerian government and the relevant stakeholders had (in 2016) expressed their interest in developing a Multi-Sector Resilience Plan (MSRP) to make the coastal area climate change resilient and reduce coastal risks, while achieving economic and environmental benefits, improving livelihood and contributing to the prosperity of the coastal communities. However, due to several issues, the implementation hereof was delayed.
The main objective of WACA is to strengthen the resilience of targeted coastal communities in West Africa. Activities planes under the WACA program will help conserve and restore coastal natural resources essential for livelihoods and social prosperity and support the sustainable development of key growth sectors such as urban transport, ecosystem, fisheries, tourism, industry, etc.
Only recently CDR International (as the lead firm), together with Deltares, Rebel and CDR Nigeria, kicked off undertaking the development of an MSRP for three coastal states in Nigeria. The three states currently participating in the development of the MSRP are Lagos, Delta and Cross River States.
Throughout July 2022, as part of the initial phase of the MSRP, CDR visited the three states to engage with stakeholders at the state level. During the field visits, it was foregrounded that some main drivers of economic and human loss are flooding, coastal erosion, water and air pollution and poor waste management.
Following the field visits, a national stakeholder’s workshop took place in Abuja which entailed technical presentations from various representatives of all coastal states (Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River). Multi-sectoral challenges in Nigeria’s coastal areas were highlighted. This includes coastal erosion due to inadequately planned coastal infrastructure, sand mining, mangroves deforestation, wetland loss due to urbanization, coastal flooding from storm surge and sea level rise, Nypa Palm invasion, and pollution such as oil spills, plastics and gas flaring.
These findings highlight the need for a scaled response to address the coastal zone and environmental degradation challenges.
Additional information on the World Bank’s West Africa Coastal Areas (WACA) Management Program can be found at the following link: https://www.wacaprogram.org/
