The Venice of Africa: The Story of Makoko

By: Alexandra Cortes and Isabel Arrocha

Go to: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lJl3qE8=/ for media exhibit. 

Makoko is a community located in Eastern Lagos, in the country of Nigeria, which has a third part of its community built on stilts over a lagoon while the rest is on land. The main issue in this area is the growth of settlements labeled as “slums” that are characterized by many social and environmental issues such as inequalities -poverty vs. wealth, development pressure, and eviction concerns-, pollution -contamination of water and soil-, sanitation -public health, access to clean water and sewage-, squatter settlement -slums-, among others. These situations tend to increase the lack of education, unemployment, and crime rates. Furthermore, this community not only has to deal with environmental and social issues but also faces economic challenges related to the rapid growth of the city of Lagos but having a physical barrier due to the city being originally located next to a lagoon with rivers and lakes, which limits the growth of the community to the East [1]. The purpose of this project is to tell the story of the Makoko community in Lagos and introduce a graphic narrative of the main challenges it faces in the present. The project will be divided into three main sections: I) social issues focusing the poor distribution of resources, services, and opportunities in this area-; II) environmental issues touching upon the geographical location of this community and how this creates environmental issues that are worsened by climate change effects-; III) economic impacts, especifically, the economic growth and development issues arising from social and environmental issues. 

Where is Makoko?

Makoko is an informal settlement across the 3rd Mainland Bridge located on the coast of mainland Lagos in Nigeria. A third of the community is built on stilts along the lagoon and the rest is on land. The waterfront part of the community is largely harboured by the Egun people who migrated from Badagary and the Republic of Benin, whose main occupation is fishing [2].

Makoko is sometimes referred to as the “Venice of Africa” due to its waterways and vulnerable situation as a community on stilts. 

A Fishing Village

Makoko was established in the 18th century as a small fishing village. It quickly sprawled into the informal, urban settlement it is today. Estimates suggest that the slum is populated by anything in between 85,000 to 400,000 people, but the exact number is unknown because the settlement is considered illegal [3]. 

Most people in Makoko earn money through fishing, timber cutting, hedging sand from the lagoon, or salt making. Usually, while the men go out to fish, the women prepare their stands at the markets to sell that day’s catch. Some women often use their canoes as shops where other people can buy household products, water, and food. Nonetheless, the polluted waters in Lagos Bay and nearby are increasingly devoid of fish and the commerce of local supply is being overwhelmed by frozen fish, imported from Europe. 

The Streets of Makoko

The waters beneath and around Makoko are around five feet deep. This water meanders through the water settlement like streets in between houses. These ‘streets’ act as a road system, where you can find canoes carrying children to school and people to their places of work. As well as a form of transportation, canoes are used for fishing and act as points of sale and exchange [3].

The houses are built above the water and they are supported by stilts buried in the water bed. The majority of the houses are built from plank and bamboo, but there are several cement and brick buildings as well. More often than not, the houses are rented and they house between six to ten people [3]. 

Makoko vs. the Megacity of Lagos

“If Lagos were a person, she would wear a Gucci jacket and a cheap hair weave, cruising in her Porsche over rain-flooded potholes. In a nation where the middle class has atrophied and the rich got rich very quickly, the poor were not irrational for believing that prosperity was within their reach” [14].  

Lagos, the largest metropolitan city in Nigeria, would have the fifth largest economy in Africa if it were a country. It is a very affluent city that struggles with the distribution of wealth, having a gigantic gap between the rich and the poor, with around 60% of the population living in slums. The architecture of the city does not often meet the Western standards of wealthiness and abundance, but it is because the glamour is concealed within the walls [14]. The Lagos government provides low-cost housing subsidies, which often end up benefiting the rich making neighborhoods with houses costing over a million dollars. This is unimaginable to someone living in Makoko, making less than $2 per day by selling what they fish [12]. It is hard to picture the reality of the inequality situation in Nigeria. While there are people making millions of dollars a day, living in million dollar houses, driving luxury cars, and dressing in high-fashion brand clothing, there are millions of people living in poverty, millions of kids that are not able to go to school, millions of people that are starving. Every day the wealth gap in Lagos expands more and Makoko is not the only informal settlement suffering from it. 

Planner’s Triangle [4]

The planner’s triangle depicts the three cornerstones of sustainable development and it is a simple way of depicting and assessing the conditions of a place. The goal of introducing the planner’s triangle in this project is to analyze and reveal the current situation the people of Makoko are living in. To understand the planner’s triangle you need to understand what are the main constituents of sustainable development:

• Economy: economic development focuses on a city where production, consumption, distribution, and innovation take place. The city is in competition with other cities for markets and for new industries. Space is the economic space of highways, market areas, and commuter zones.
• Environment: the environmental pillar sees the city as a consumer of resources and a producer of wastes. The city is in competition with nature for scarce resources and land, and always poses a threat to nature. Space is the ecological space of greenways, river basins, and ecological niches. 

• Society: the equity pillar sees the city as a location of conflict over the distribution of resources, of services, and of opportunities. The competition is within the city itself, among different social groups. Space is the social space of communities, neighborhood organizations, labor unions: the space of access and segregation.

• Resource conflict (Environment vs. Economy): business resists the regulation of its exploitation of nature, but at the same time needs regulation to conserve those resources for present and future demands. The conceptual essence of natural resources is the tension between their economic utility in industrial society and their ecological utility in the natural environment. This conflict defines the boundary between the developed city and the undeveloped wilderness.

• Development conflict (Society vs. Environment): this conflict stems from the difficulty of aiming both for the subsistence of working people and the natural environment. How could those at the bottom of society find greater economic opportunity if environmental protection mandates diminished economic growth? On a global scale, efforts to protect the environment might lead to slowed economic growth in many countries, exacerbating the inequalities between rich and poor nations.

• Property conflict (Economy vs. Society): this conflict arises from competing claims on and uses of property. This growth-equity conflict is further complicated because each side not only resists the other, but also needs the other for its own survival. This tension is generated as the private sector simultaneously resists and needs social intervention, given the intrinsically contradictory nature of property. The conflict defines the boundary between private interest and the public good. 

• Sustainability: the center of the triangle as representing sustainable development, the balance of these three goals. The crucial point is that all three groups have an interactive relationship with nature -the differences lie in their conflicting conceptions of nature, their conflicting uses of nature, and how they incorporate nature into their systems of values-. 

Now, we will break down the three corners of the planner’s triangle to analyze where Makoko stands in relation to each of them and to see if it could be categorized as a sustainable community. 

Economic Issues

• Most people in Makoko earn money by fishing, cutting timber, or hedging sand from the lagoon. Other economic activities include salt making, sawmills, and some women often use their canoes as shops where other people can buy household products, water, and food. Nonetheless, the polluted waters in Lagos Bay and nearby are increasingly devoid of fish. Frozen fish, imported from Europe, has come to replace locally sourced produce. By fishing and selling a day’s catch, the people of Makoko make less than $2 per day, with this most of the population is unable to afford basic necessities [12].

• There are no government schools for the children of Makoko. Many children have never attended school and can’t read. A floating school was built in Makoko in 2013. It was barely used and then was destroyed by a 2016 storm. The community was unable to pay teachers or buy books and supplies. This perpetuates the inequality because without a high school diploma or college degree, people are unable to get high-paying jobs that could help them escape their poverty. 

• In 2016, daily demand for water in the state stood at 724 Million gallons while production was 317 million gallons, leaving a gap of 407 million gallons. Worse still, some of the water never reaches households due to constant fracturing of run-down pipes. While residents rely on informal sources of water, this costs them a lot of money [1]. Only the affluent people of Lagos are able to afford having piped water in their homes. 

• Since 2012, the people of Makoko have been facing eviction and demolition of their houses because the Lagos government wants to eliminate the slum for aesthetic purposes. Makoko sits atop some of the most expensive real estate in Nigeria’s thriving, chaotic commercial capital and developers are lining up to build luxury residential complexes on the waterfront [5]. 

• Nigeria is a highly corrupt and unequal country and because of this the people of Makoko are at a disadvantage. They are poor and do not have the means nor the access to opportunities to overcome the situation. The worst part is that Makoko is not the only informal settlement in Lagos and the majority of the population is living under some sort of poverty condition. The country of Nigeria, the city of Lagos, or even the wealthiest people in the country have enough money to even the playing field, but instead they keep driving a bigger wedge between the rich and the poor. 

Economic issues in Makoko are deeply intertwined with the social and environmental issues happening in the entirety of the territory, and as Makoko, as well as the rest of the slums in Nigeria, is an informal settlement considered as “illegal” and “hazardous”, the people living here are at a disadvantage. 

Resource Conflict: The resource conflict is about regulating businesses to decrease their ecological exploitation, which does not seem to be a problem in Makoko given that they do not have businesses and do not use ecological resources for other purposes than to meet their own needs. The people of Makoko do fish, and have altered the ecosystem of Lagos Lagoon due to their presence but it has been purely based on their needs to do so. If they were to exploit the resources they are surrounded by it would definitely be based on anything other than need. Therefore, if Makoko is considered to have a resource conflict it would be a problem inflicted to them by the government of Lagos by perpetuating inequality and leaving the community to fend for themselves. 

Environmental Issues [1]

• Sanitation: lack of sanitation is probably the major issue in this settlement, there are communal toilets, but they need to be shared by around 15 households. Sewage, kitchen residues and all kinds of materials end up in the water below homes.

• Waste disposal: Lagos is the largest producer of solid waste in Nigeria. There is no comprehensive city based system of collection and this waste poses a hazard to human health. Lagos produces approximately 13 million kg of waste per day but uses infrastructure developed in the 1970’s when the city had only 3 million residents to manage it which means a lot of uncollected waste.

• Water pollution: uncontrolled disposal of raw sewage, sediment carrying runoff and effluents into the lagoon system has created serious health concerns. Deadly waterborne diseases like cholera & diarrhea are affecting people as a result. 

• Access to clean water: Lagos is a city surrounded by water, with over 2,000 millimetres of annual rainfall but a lot of the water is not safe to drink. Access to formal clean water is extremely low, there are few water pipes in the slum and those that exist only have the supply switched on for 2 hours a day by the city authorities. This means people have to queue for water and have to rely on the informal sector comprised of wells, boreholes, rivers and rainwater and this costs them a lot of money. 

• Electric supply: the sheer size of Lagos has overwhelmed the grid, resulting in periods where the power cuts out. This makes it difficult for people to perform everyday chores and for businesses to run properly.  Many people have to rely on expensive diesel generators when the electricity goes off, which are also major contributors to air pollution in the area.

• Air pollution: Lagos has some very dirty air including dangerous levels of Nitrous Oxides, high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and small dust particles called particulate matter.  These are both hazardous to human health and can cause things like asthma. The causes of this pollution are industry, ever increasing numbers of cars and construction dust. Also, although much less hazardous, the overpopulation of informal settlements is prone to generate unhealthy air quality conditions. 

• Climate change: extreme weathers due to global warming, habitat extinction due to overpopulation, and water/air pollution, and the most concerning climate change effect, SEA LEVEL RISE! The residents are very vulnerable to sea level change and flooding since many of the buildings are actually in the lagoon!

As is to be expected, the entirety of the environmental issues that Makoko constantly goes through are connected to each other like a domino effect in which poor waste disposal management triggers lack of sanitation, sanitation creates water pollution, water pollution hinders access to clean water and the unsustainable management of these resources leads to climate change, on the other hand, deficit of electric supply leads to the increased use of fossil fuels which in turn generates air pollution and exacerbates climate change effects. 

Development Conflict: The development conflict is definitely an issue in Makoko since it struggles both in the societal and environmental aspects. The people of Makoko live above a highly polluted lake, with no access to basic necessities nor economic growth opportunities to rise out of their precarious situation. They are the perfect example of environmental racism because they are forced to live out of what the lagoon can give them but also blamed for its contamination. The people of Makoko do the best with what they are given and should not have to choose between environmental preservation and poverty. 

Social Issues

“The concept of poverty has been identified as a major cause of poor urban design and slum evolution. Poverty can be defined in different ways. […] Some people describe poverty as a lack of essential items, such as food, clothing, water, and shelter, needed for proper living. Poverty also has a social dimension, which include poor quality of housing and the living environment, i.e. lack of access to basic services like clean water, health care, education etc. However, even a definition in economic and social terms does not describe poverty well enough. Apart from not having access to the benefits of development, poverty is also a lack of choice and of voice, of rights and security of participation in decision making” [15].

As mentioned previously, many economical and environmental issues in Makoko stem from social issues and vice versa. It is clear that under the typical, economical definition of poverty the people of Makoko fall under the category of being poor. However, poverty is not one- dimensional and Makoko is the living proof of that. 

• Housing: the majority of the houses in Makoko are poorly built from planks and bamboo, exposing the residents to dangers stemming from natural events such as heavy rain and flooding, which could easily destroy the homes. Most of the houses in Makoko are also overcrowded. It is necessary to emphasize that the majority of the houses are rented, so aside from not earning enough money for the basic necessities they also have to pay rent. These houses do not have piping systems, meaning that the residents do not have access to clean water [3]. 

• Eviction: since Lagos is a booming city, the government wants to make the city more aesthetically pleasing to promote tourism and bring international investment. Politicians view Makoko as a stain in their beautiful city, especially because it is located in the 3rd Mainland Bridge which is highly transited since it connects Lagos island with the mainland. In 2012, the government gave a portion of Makoko’s people a three day eviction moratorium. They had to evacuate because their homes were to be demolished, so people had to find a new place to live and many families were separated [13]. 

• Education: up until 2013, Makoko had only one primary school but it’s infrastructure was not adequate, which made it flood very frequently. That year a proposal was written to build a floating school, which would be a prototype for sustainable buildings that could be built in the slum in the future. The people of Makoko were ecstatic with the project but a 2016 storm destroyed the building. There are thousands of children living in Makoko that are not able to go to school because there are no government funded schools in the area and they do not have the money to build one nor pay for the teachers and school materials [10].  

• Healthcare: the pollution of the lake water is something the people of Makoko cannot escape. They are frequently exposed to pathogens in the water because since they do not have access to clean water, the lake is their only source. Everything done by the community involves the lake since they live on top of it. Aside from their closeness to the brackish water infested with pathogens and dirt, the problem is that, just like with schools, they do not have government-funded hospitals. Whenever someone in Makoko gets sick or injured they have to deal with it themselves and hope for the best [9]. 

• Electricity and Water: Makoko is not connected to any sort of grid provided by the Nigerian government, not electricity and certainly not water. In order to get electricity, the people that can afford it will buy a generator. The people that do not have generators do not have electricity. The water Makoko sits on top of is full of feces, trash, and dirt, so it is definitely not safe to drink. In order to get clean, drinking water the people of Makoko rely on some pipes, which often are not able to provide enough for everyone, wells, and rivers. 

• Lack of voice: since Makoko is an informal settlement it is highly disregarded by the government. The community does not have access to the basic necessities and the government does not seem to want to provide for them more than they want to erase the community from existence. The people of Makoko are not heard enough, so they have to use the little resources they have to make their community better. 

Property Conflict: the Lagos government considering Makoko an informal settlement and the people living there illegal, and their efforts to evict and demolish the community, are the perfect example of the property conflict. The government believes they can push the people out of their homes because they “own” the land, but the settlement was established centuries ago, so really who owns it? The problem is that the reasons behind the government wanting to demolish the settlement are selfish and greedy, while the people of Makoko need to be there because they have nowhere else to go. Even if they were to be accommodated elsewhere, they have no education and they only know how to make a living out of what they have in the lagoon, so displacing them would only perpetuate their poverty. 

In conclusion, the people of Makoko care a lot about their community and they do their best to improve their living conditions. However, the community is far from living sustainably. It is definitely lacking in all three cornerstones of sustainability: economics, environment, and socially, and suffers from the three conflicts: resource conflict, development conflict, and property conflict. The people of Makoko need to be given the space to talk about their needs and struggles and the government needs to help out their people. With the help of advocates, word of Makoko has crossed international borders, garnering help, and giving the community hope for the future. 

Sustainable Solutions

Education, creating awareness, digital mapping, waterfront regeneration plan, floating infrastructure – there is lots to be done. 

In September of 2019, the NGO Code for Africa launched a project to develop mapping for Makoko. Since the government of Lagos is not proud of the informal settlement, there are no digital maps available. Even if you use Google Earth and try zooming in to see the zone and the infrastructure, all you can see are large hay-like planks. Having no digital maps of the area makes it difficult to estimate human activity, as well as the size and conditions of the infrastructure. It also makes it easier for investors, or the government, to take over the area without any consequences, like they have previously done, because the area looks inhabited. Code for Africa, with the help of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, “pilot drones to capture aerial footage of the community and input map coordinates on an open source app on their mobile phones, to pinpoint roads and points of interest in the community” [9]. This will help Makoko to become a legitimate community in the eyes of the government and will help with urban planning and development, hopefully ending forceful evictions. The digital mapping should also help with the Makoko/Iwaya Waterfront Regeneration Plan proposed in 2012 for the improvement of waterfront communities. 

The Makoko/Iwaya Waterfront Regeneration Plan was created by the project director of urban development and infrastructure consultancy Arctic Infrastructure and the help of volunteers to improve the infrastructure, economic development, tourism, and resilience of the community. In other words, the plan is to help the integration of Makoko into the mega city development that the government of Lagos wants to achieve. The initiative to come up with a comprehensive plan came after the 2012 mass eviction and demolition when members of the community reached out to the Executive Governor of Lagos State to develop a plan that would develop the community to governmental standards to stop the demolitions. The plan, which was submitted to the Lagos State Ministry of Urban and Physical Planning in January of 2014, targets the infrastructure of the settlement, proposing to make it not only more aesthetically pleasing but also more resilient to disasters, and more importantly, low cost. The plan also proposes the development of a tourism plan that includes building a hotel, guest houses, a floating market, and a water transportation scheme to make Makoko a world-class destination, which would in turn improve the economic situation of the community. One of the most important features of the regeneration plan is that it seeks to remove the name of Makoko from the list of slum communities and to ensure tenure for the residents, all while preserving their cultural heritage [11]. 

Currently there is no information on whether the government has accepted and taken on the projects outlined in the Makoko/Iwaya Waterfront Regeneration Plan. Therefore, it is important to create awareness of the situation the people of Makoko are living in, not only because they need help but also because it could be an example to other slum communities and governments around the world. The people of Makoko need our help! 

How to get involved

Justice and Empowerment Initiatives [6]:

“JEI is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. We support the Nigerian Slum / Informal Settlement Federation (Federation) to empower poor and marginalized individuals and communities to lead the changes that they would like to see in their own communities — whether greater access to justice for the poor, pro-poor urban governance and policy, or community-led in-situ upgrading and development. 

Our work is community driven, community owned, and community sustained. The Federation and its member communities identify their needs and set priorities. These priorities direct all aspects of our work”  

#EndForcedEvictions and #AntiFEBill Petition [7]:

This movement is looking for 2 million signatures to #EndForcedEvictions in Nigeria & support the #AntiFEBill!! Only your first name, last name and email are needed to sign and make a difference. For more information, you can also follow @NaijaFederation & @justempower:

#EndForcedEvictions #AntiFEBill #OtodoGbame #Justice4OtodoGbame. 

Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation [8]:

“The Nigerian Slum / Informal Settlement Federation (Federation) is a mass movement of the urban poor for our dignity and development, with thousands of members from hundreds of informal settlements in Lagos and Rivers States and rapidly growing in Abuja and other cities. We have come together around our common challenges and collective aspiration to build more inclusive and habitable cities. We are supported by Justice & Empowerment Initiatives – Nigeria (JEI) and affiliated with Slum Dwellers International (SDI), a global network of slum dweller federations.” 

References:

[1] Cool Geography (2015). UIC – Lagos Challenges. Retrieved from: https://www.coolgeography.co.uk/gcsen/Lagos_Challenges.php 

[2] Wikipedia (2021). Makoko. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoko

[3] Udoma, O. (s.f.). Makoko: ‘Venice of Lagos’. Retrieved form: https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/makoko-venice-lagos/241671/ 

[4] Campbell, S. (1996). Green cities, growing cities, just cities?: Urban planning and the contradictions of sustainable development. Journal of the American Planning Association, 62(3), 296-312. 

[5] Calinescu, P. (s.f.). Fighting from Makoko. Retrieved from: https://maptia.com/calinescu/stories/fighting-for-makoko

[6] Justice and Empowerment Initiatives (2021). Justice and Empowerment Initiatives. Retrieved from: https://www.justempower.org/ 

[7] Naija Federation (2021). 2 million signatures to #EndForcedEvictions in Nigeria & support the #AntiFEBill!!. Retrieved from: 

https://www.change.org/p/join-the-movement-to-endforcedevictions-in-nigeria-help-us-gather-2-million-signatures-calling-for-urgent-action-by-the-national-assembly

[8] Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation (2018). Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation. Retrieved from: https://nigerianfederation.wordpress.com/

[9] Adeshokan, Oluwatosin. “Mapping Makoko: How Data Could Help Legitimize Nigeria’s Informal Settlements.” Devex, Devex, 12 May 2020, www.devex.com/news/mapping-makoko-how-data-could-help-legitimize-nigeria-s-informal-settlements-96793.

[10] “Does Makoko Floating School’s Collapse Threaten the Whole Slum’s Future?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 June 2016, www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jun/10/makoko-floating-school-collapse-lagos-nigeria-slum-water.

[11] “MAKOKO/IWAYA WATERFRONT COMMUNITY; FROM RISK TO RESILIENCE THROUGH REGENERATION PLAN.” Lookman Oshodi, 1 Oct. 2014, oshlookman.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/makokoiwaya-waterfront-community-from-risk-to-resilience-through-regeneration-plan/.

[12] Nosmot Gbadamosi May 31, 2019. “Nigerian Fishers Hit by Criminals, Imports and Climate Change.” Chinadialogue Ocean, 2 Oct. 2019, chinadialogueocean.net/8338-nigeria-fishers-criminals-imports-climate-change/.

[13] Ogunlesi, Tolu, and Andrew Esiebo. “Inside Makoko: Danger and Ingenuity in the World’s Biggest Floating Slum.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Feb. 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/feb/23/makoko-lagos-danger-ingenuity-floating-slum.

[14] Saro-Wiwa, Noo. “Why Lagos, Nigeria, Is the Cultural Capital We’re Heading to Next.” Condé Nast Traveler, www.cntraveler.com/story/why-lagos-nigeria-is-the-cultural-capital-were-heading-to-next

[15] Ajayi, Olumuyiwa O., et al. “Urban design and sustainable development: a case of Makoko area of Lagos State, Nigeria.” (2014): 90-97.