First let me say I have nothing against the ambitious land reclamation going on in Lagos. I am only posting this just in case there's something to learn from it

By BEN JACKSON, Environment Editor

LUXURY islands in Dubai shaped like countries of the world are sinking, a tribunal heard yesterday.
Experts said the man-made project off the coast of the oil-rich emirate is "dead".

The World archipelago was intended to have top hotels and villas for millionaires - but work is believed to have stopped following the financial crisis.

Now the sands are eroding and the navigational channels between each "nation" are silting up, the property hearing was told.


Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, a British lawyer for a company that ferries people to the islands, told the tribunal: "They are gradually falling back into the sea."
Penguin Marine is seeking to withdraw from paying fees of £1million a year because there are so few passengers for the development a mile and a half from the mainland.

The firm claims work on the islands has "effectively stopped".

It was hoped the holiday paradise - one of the most ambitious building projects ever - could become a wonder of the modern world.

Developer Nakheel claims 70 per cent of The World's 300 islands have been sold.

But the only inhabited island is Greenland - which is a show home owned by Dubai's ruler.

And Nakheel admits work on the archipelago is "in a coma".

The firm was part of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate bailed out of £18billion debts at the end of 2009.

Investors who did buy islands also ran into problems after the Dubai property bubble burst.

John O'Dolan - whose company bought Ireland for £24million - committed suicide.

And Safi Qurashi, who bought Britain for £43million, is serving seven years in jail in Dubai for bouncing cheques.
Graham Lovett, for Nakheel, told the Dubai tribunal the scheme was not dead.

He said: "This is a ten-year project which has slowed down. This is a project which will be completed."

The tribunal found for Nakheel.

Last night a spokesman insisted the islands are not sinking.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/Green/3365802/Dubais-paradise-isles-are-sinking-into-sea-tribunal-hears.html

@ OP
There is the great wall of lagos or eko. Google it. That wall should work.

How similar are these things? Building islands from scratch a few miles offshore is different from expanding an existing island, is it not?

More bad news for that little enterprising country. Wonder how they'll get past this.

,

Will I be able to purchase my dream real estate buy cheaper AFTER it is submerged ? 

I am a fully certified muff diver, so water does not frighten or intimidate me.

Forget it Jakumo. Your talents lie in a totally different direction!!!

eku_bear:

How similar are these things? Building islands from scratch a few miles offshore is different from expanding an existing island, is it not?

I have little understanding of these stuffs but I know I once heard VI itself is submerging and due to global warming, the water has gained height over the years. So extending poses as much danger as building from scratch as far as I know.

Hoping to hear from civil engineers in the house though

All coastal communities will be impacted by global warming. Lagos was built on a lagoon. As the water rises, this could prove disastrous for the city and a host of other communities along Nigeria's coast.

oh

na today.
if what going on in australia is to go by, i will give lekki and its surburb a wide miss.
just a tot.

i still think Eko Atlantic will be more successful because the Archipelago was a flawed idea in that it was selling 300 properties at once, plus other artificial properties in dubai.

Even if you sold all 300, it price of land in dubai would drastically deflate due to the over abundance of unused and quite frankly useless land. so as the price of the land deflates, the worth of the economy goes with it.

builders have to sell at a loss
selling at a loss restricts further building by the same builder
less building leads to a slow down in economic activity and money available in the city
a slow down in economic activity leads to a slow down in investors
a slow down in investors means the people that bought the land from the investors have to
1. sell at ANOTHER loss
2. No reason to develop the land because the demand for it is drastically crippled by over saturation.


essentially it does for land what printing too much money does for currency.
Dubai 'printed' more land then people essentially wanted and there was little purpose for the land anyways (the flux of people moving into Dubai isn't strong enough to support such an expansion). The problem now is so much of the economy is pegged on Land anywhere in the world, i would even say it's more important to an economy then currency it's self.









Lagos on the other hand has a massive flood people investors AND people coming in and not enough space to fit them. Also, the land lagos already have is not the most 'favorable' for investment due to lack of facilities, disorder, poor planning and chaos.

The demand to live in Lagos will always be extremely high in Nigeria because in a nation of 150 million people it's the only place with a consistently reasonable standard of living, and it's the main port for 150 million import happy people plus other west african states.


therefore, if Eko Atlantic is 'better' then the rest of Lagos there will be a tremendous flood of investment. It will be a 'reasonable' means to tapping into enormous growth in Nigeria and Lagos without the hassle of disorder of Nigerian and Lagos lol.



As long as Lagos doesn't build too many "Eko Atlantics" it should be good.
I for one think that the Lekki Free Trade Zone is a risky move when trying to build Eko Atlantic because the two projects will be cannibalizing each other in the end and killing the concentration of demand.

also, pouring sand into water then building on top of it is a retarded idea and should no longer be emulated anywhere in the world.


water levels change and will always be more powerful then your insignificant sand dune.
on top of that the laws of kinetic energy, heat, and gravity dictate that sand will, by it's self, spread and expand outwards no matter what, which will make all sand based developments weaker and weaker with time while water pressure remains strong and with global warming becomes stronger and stronger with time.

Abeg, let Lagos (and the engineers they hired to do feasibility for the project) worry about this issue. No need to borrow worry.

Long hiss @ all harbinger of bad news on this thread! Nansense! When una nor get money 2 buy choice properties una go begin adopt pessimistic views!

Most part of England is an Island, how many of it has been reclaimed by the North atlantic? What ever happened to water breakers?

For those citing Dubai as example. . . _{rolls eyes}. Development was suspended with prolly no mitigating structure against the land being reclaimed, what else did u think was going 2 happen?

Having said all these, invest/purchase Eko atlantic @ your own peril. (poor maintenance culture remains the bane of naija)

i live in 1004 for a year- 1985. we used to go to bar beach on weekends. i was like 8 years old then. back then the beach extendd for some 2 or more kilometres. now its less than 200 metres. and theres no fun, what with the concrete breakers installed to counter erosion

what happens in lagos and what happened in dubai are completely different. Dubai paradise island is sinking while lagos is eroding. Lagos has an erosion Problem due to the intense surfs and waves that hits the beaches. Like many have said, victoria island extend out kilometers towards the sea in the past, but due to the erosion, land was lost to the sea. So lagos is not sinking, its eroding. But their is nothing engineering cant solve. there are already projects under construction that will reclaim land and protect lagos from the sea.