Lagos Erases Flood Defenses: 40% Water, 6 Settlements Demolished

For climate adaptation planners, Lagos is a warning: informal waterfront settlements functioned as distributed flood-defence systems, mining lagoon sand to raise foundations and boring wells for water. Research across 20 such settlements shows authorities have demolished at least six since July 2023, erasing the very adaptive infrastructure a flood-prone city of 40% water/wetland cover can least afford to lose.

Lagos, Nigeria, has demolished at least six informal settlements since July 2023, according to research published by a climate social scientist. The removals are framed as safety, development or climate protection, but fieldwork across 20 waterfront settlements shows they destroy some of the city's most effective, community-built climate adaptation systems. In a city where more than 40% of the surface is water or wetland, these informal systems were not marginal—they supplied sand for foundations, water and flood defence to both poor and wealthy neighbourhoods.

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This pattern is common in many coastal megacities, but Lagos is an extreme case because of its geography: more than 40% water and wetland coverage leaves little room for error.

The study observed divers working lagoon stretches from canoes, collecting sand bucket by bucket and selling it to households and building sites across Lagos. That sand is packed around foundations and under floors to lift structures above water. In a city with chronic flooding and coastal erosion, this is a direct flood-defence supply chain. Residents also dug boreholes and sold water to surrounding households. These were organised systems of living with climate risk, built by people who had the least formal protection.

The demolitions therefore carry a contradiction. When authorities clear a settlement, they remove not just housing but the working infrastructure embedded in the community. The sand supply chain that reaches wealthier neighbourhoods loses a source of material for raised foundations. Borehole water distribution is disrupted. Local knowledge of flood patterns and drainage is scattered. In a city where climate change is increasing flood frequency and intensity, this is a dismantling of adaptive capacity exactly when it is needed most.

For the formal real estate and construction sector, the implications are direct but often overlooked. Lagos property developers and builders rely on the same lagoon sand that informal divers harvest. Demolishing the settlements that supply this material could raise the cost of foundations and site preparation, or shift sourcing to less sustainable alternatives. The loss of community flood-defence labour also increases water exposure for new and existing developments across the city, not just within the demolished areas. Proptech platforms that map flood risk and construction costs should treat informal settlement removal as a data event with real estate consequences.