SEA LEVELS are rising along the entire West African coast. UN-Habitat suggests that more than 25% of people living within 100km of this heavily populated coastline are at risk from rising seas, writes DIANNA GAMES, CEO of Africa@Work.

Bar Beach in Lagos was once a meeting place for the people of this sprawling megacity.

Informal bars stretched along the narrow belt of sand, church groups came to pray, children played in the water and touts, prostitutes and others plied their trade.

But as the relentless encroachment of the Atlantic Ocean took its toll, and all manner of methods to stop the flooding of the beach and the built-up area beyond it were put in place, they started moving off.

The beach adjoins Victoria Island, the city’s prime commercial district, where most major Nigerian and international corporations in the country have their headquarters.

Much of the island used to be a swamp that was reclaimed to enable the advance of the middle class to new areas untainted by the urban sprawl that characterises much of the older parts of the city.

The buildings along the seafront at Bar Beach are now deserted and the road in front of them bears the scars of regular flooding. Read more ...

- Published in Business Day SA, 14 September 2015.