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The government has spent millions of dollars protecting coastal communities from sea erosion. But climate change and rising sea levels have added to the vulnerability of the coastal region
Experts say Benin the country on the Atlantic coast loses approximately 30 metres of its coastline every year to the ocean. The government has spent millions of dollars protecting coastal communities from sea erosion. However, climate change and rising sea levels have added to the vulnerability of the coastal region.
The government has built 13 structures along beaches, particularly to the east of the country’s largest city, Cotonou, in an attempt to slow down ocean erosion. Nearly US$160 million the government has injected into the protection of the coast. This has helped slow down the ocean’s advance, but more concrete steps are urgently needed to reverse the process.
Coastal erosion is impacting the whole of West Africa and other countries around the world. It is one of the subjects to be addressed at the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai in December.
For decades, Cotonou, Benin’s largest city and its economic capital, has faced the fury of the Atlantic Ocean. The situation worsened after 1961, following the construction of dams and deep-water ports that impacted not just the Cotonou coast, but the entire 121km of the Beninese shoreline.
A research entitled “The vulnerability to climate change of Cotonou (Benin): the rise in sea level” elaborated by Krystel Dossou and Bernadette Glehouenou-Dossou, for the International Institute for Environment and Development in 2007, explained the phenomenon as the disruption upstream (dams) or shoreline (ports) of the coastal currents carrying sand. The coast is subject to ocean swells of distant origin, with waves measuring 160—220m long arriving at intervals of between 10 and 16 seconds. The report also highlights that the construction of ports has diverted sediment and reduced the sandy deposits along the coastline.
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Another report, made by UNESCO in 2012, indicates that the average rate of coastal deterioration is between one and two meters per year. It goes on to stress that this constitutes a major menace to West Africa. The report notes that erosion rates of up to hundreds of meters per year have been observed, as a result of the combined effects of human activity and the increase in sea level due to climate change.
