MAKOKO

•      Currently, the Nigerian tycoons are busy with the construction of an artificial peninsula in the Atlantic ocean to protect them from the water. Meanwhile, just a few kilometers away, the people living in Makoko live as they've always had: with the water.

          Makoko is a shanty town under the third mainland bridge on the coast of mainland Lagos, that has been surrounded during the modernisation of the city. 

100.000 people approximately live here, in unsanitary and dangerous conditions.

People who live here inhabit one-storey wooden houses built over pillars, maintaining them away from the water.

•     The 3rd mainland bridge stands just 10 meters above the lagoon. The high voltage electric cables hang from the bridge, going through the smog coming from the ovens in Makoko; the community still doesn't have electricity, even though it is so close and so far at the same time.

    Electricity isn't the only basic need lacking in Makoko, clean water and waste collection aren't available. The lagoon works as a dumpster and a sewage system, making the dirty water a source of numerous illnesses such as malaria 

     The government has done nothing besides trying to evict people out of their homes. A couple years ago, they got 3000 people out. Makoko is a severe problem for them because it is located on the coastline and it could be very rentable land. Now the government has changed the strategy and is actually trying to sustain the community without kicking them out.

"Only the residents suffer the floodings"

•       The heart of Lagos is in the island with the same name, where we can find the main shops, restaurants and banks. The vast majority of embassies are in the Victoria's islands and Ikory. These three islands form the most part of the urban center of Lagos. The rest of the city, where three quarters of the population live, we can find dwellings from a really low quality and an extremely high population density ( reaching the 200.000 inhabitants per square kilometer). On one hand , the booming economy of Lagos has led to great wealth, but in the other hand, over the 60% of the population life in slums such as Makoko.