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Date: 30 Aug 2008 19:49:32 +0000

Subject: WEST AFRICA: Coastline to be submerged by 2099



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       HyperLink WEST AFRICA: Coastline to be submerged by 2099

[2007092611.JPG]
Photo: Dulue Mbachu/IRIN [magnify.gif]
Slum housing in the Ebute Metta district of Lagos, Nigeria, September
2007ACCRA, 25 August 2008 (IRIN) - Swathes of West Africa’s coastline
extending from the orange dunes in Mauritania to the dense tropical
forests in Cameroon will be underwater by the end of the century as a
direct consequence of climate change, environmental experts warn.

"The coastline [as it is now] will be completely changed by the end of
this century because the sea level is rising along the coast at around
two centimetres every year," said Stefan Cramer, Nigeria director of
Heinrich Boll Stiftung, a German environmental NGO.

Even where urban areas appear unscathed, sea level rise will still
challenge towns and cities by threatening the underground water supplies
from which millions of people across the region draw their water.

"[Increasing salinity] will make the ground water undrinkable and
unsuitable for agricultural purposes. The result will be food and water
insecurity," agreed George Awudi, Ghana Programme Coordinator for the
environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth.

The effects of sea-level rise will be most “dramatic” in Nigeria's
economic capital Lagos which is just five metres above sea level, with
some parts of the city lying below sea-level, Cramer said.

The flooding is likely be most severe in Lagos because of its position at
the southern end of the Gulf of Guinea where stronger tropical storms
from the South Atlantic create storm surges up to three metres high,
Cramer said. He estimates that most of the 15 million inhabitants of
Lagos will be displaced and Nigeria’s southern Delta region where oil
installations are located will also be swamped.

Other major urban centres in West Africa which experts have identified as
at risk of flooding are Banjul in The Gambia, Bissau in Guinea Bissau,
and Nouakchott in Mauritania. All three capitals are at or close to sea
level.

'' ...It's all due to climate change - the greenhouse gas emissions
result in global warming the subsequent meling of the Greeland ice
cap...'' Blame

Environmentalists blame the gradual melting of the 3,000 metre-thick
Greenland ice cap in the A rctic as being responsible for the coastal
erosion along the Coast of Guinea. Greenland is three times the size of
Nigeria and its emptying into the Atlantic causes a rise in the
sea-level.

"It is all due to climate change - the greenhouse gas emissions result in
global warming and subsequent melting of the Greenland ice cap," Cramer
said.

Compounding the situation in West Africa, in August 2007 a tropical storm
5,000 kilometres off the coast caused a shift in the strong currents that
run near the Nigerian coast and destroyed a protective sand bar.

The solution

Environmental experts have different solutions to the problem.

"I think the best way out for the moment is devising simpler and more
cost effective solutions such as how to preserve towns and villages under
threat and preventing sea water intrusion", the director of the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer said.

"The sensible option is moving to higher ground which is a tough option
especially for Nigeria as it means giving up its economic centres in
Lagos and its oil installations in the Delta", Cramer said.

But Awudi at Friends of the Earth described relocation as an "unthinkable
option” due to its economic, social and cultural implications.

"Every solution to a problem must focus on the major cause of that
problem and in this case greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised
countries which are responsible for sea-level rise must be effectively
tackled," Awudi said.

"The industrialised countries should take proactive steps in curtailing
their emissions responsible for climate change which will have a positive
impact on sea-level rise," he said.

However according to Cramer even if the industrialised countries do stop
their greenhouse gas emissions, the trend of rising sea levels would
continue unchanged for another 50 to 100 years.

The experts all made their comments on the sidelines of a UNFCCC working
meeting in the Ghana capital Accra where representatives of 150 countries
have gathered to continue preparatory negotiations for a landmark climate
change conference due to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009 where a
successor to the Kyoto Treaty is to be signed.

aa/nr


Theme(s): (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Early Warning, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN)
Environment, (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Human
Rights, (IRIN) Migration, (IRIN) Natural Disasters, (IRIN) Urban Risk,
(IRIN) Water & Sanitation

[ENDS]
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
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