Geography - lagos

Intro

Lagos is a nigerian city located on the southcoast of nigeria, the city is located in an area of lagons, sandbars and islands and is therefroe a natural harbour. Lagos grew from a port city to become the capital of nigeria up until 1983, the capital was then re-located to abuja. From 1890-1930 Lagos's population grew from 10000 to 1.5 million, population growth slowed from 1930-1960 but from 1960-1999 the population thundered from 1.5 million to 11.4  million. It is estimated that Lagos will have a population of 24.4 million in 2050 making it in th etop 5 worlds largest city, this is the root cause of the problems Lagos is facing and will face.

Problems

Due to the sheer size of Lagos and its population its infrastructure has become vastly overwhelmed, with heavy traffic nicknamed 'go slows' becoming frequent. The heavy traffic aggravates the environment chocking the air with car fumes. A lack of free government education in the slum areas of the city such as makoko has resulted in lots of private schools where the children pay an adult to teach, unlikely to be qualified to teach the children are receiving a poor education. Only 3/10 people in the city can afford to pay for electricity but a lot of people don't pay anyway as electricity supply is poor so only 2 hours per day has successful electricity, the reason for the lack of electricity is people not paying enough to the supplier, an endless cycle. 65% of Lagos's income is generated from illegal work such as street vendors who use the "go slows" to their advantage, other people who in-migrate in search of work often enter the illegal trade as there is a shortage of jobs.

Solutions

One way the government in Lagos is trying to solve its problems is introducing bus routes, these bypass the "go slows" in dedicated bus lanes and reduce CO2 by 40%. a special task force has been assigned to stop the illegal trade and find jobs for the migrants. The city of Lagos is also providing mortgages to people so they can work to buying a house to home their families, the Government is also building temporary housing for the residents in the slums or those illegal traders re-located whilst they search for formal employment. The recycling dumps allows access to the public, the residents use this chance to either improve or build a house in the slums or sell it to a vendor, illegally of course, and make easy money.

Comment on the solutions

I feel the bus routes are a hugely successful idea as this greatly reduces traffic, reduces CO2, more time efficient for those who usually walked and for those who couldn't drive due to financial constraint, furthermore it also provides a strong source of income for the city plus jobs and more buses will be able to be used in the future. However the bus routes does mean re designing he roads which will cause a lot of traffic and with the roads in Lagos already dangerous this may create extra hazards and road casualties. The task force assigned to wipe out the illegal trade will wipe out 65% of Lagos's income, enough said really as Lagos cant re locate or provide formal work for those who worked illegally and therefore they are shooting themselves in the foot as 65% loss in income is huge for a developing city. The providing of mortgages is a good idea as it will help to rehome those families that have the money, and doing it gradual repayments wont put lots of stress on the resident, however a lot of Lagos cant afford a mortgage and giving one to a person who has no knowledge of a mortgage will fall into huge financial difficulty.

  In what way does rapid urbanisation help and hinder development into a World City? (20 marks)

A World city acts as a major hub for world finance; trade, business, politics and culture, in essence the city serves the world, the term world city was coined by a man called peter hall. Early twentieth century London was in the same ball park as the developing world today and it was facing rapid urbanisation form the rural areas of the country, people in rural counties like Devon and Cornwall to name a few left the farming and mining life which was rife in those areas at the time to head for the city which held the hopes of many as a prosperous future, with more money and services. This emigration for the countryside left farming lacking labourers and development of machinery soon came to place; this pushed remaining farm workers away. Not just farmers left for the city, the young left to make a living and one day return with money to provide for their families like the developing world is doing today in Lagos. The influx of people into 20^th century London put huge pressure on the housing conditions and people lived in squalor, sewage was the streets and the streets were sewage. People where closely packed and pollution was chocking people. However over ther next 100 years events like the two world wars generated an economic boom in production, the city became the place to be, London further grew into a world city as more and more business arrived. The city grew financially, political power was then strong and influenecial to other parts of the world.

Rapid urbanisation today can be seen in the developed world in cities like Lagos, Lagos is located in southern Nigeria, and it used to be the capital up until 1983 when the title was given away to Abuja. From 1890-1930 the population grew from 10000 to 1.5 million, by 1960-1999 population grew from 1.5 million to 11.4 million. By 2050 Lagos is estimated to reach 24.5 million making it in the top 5 world largest cities. The reason Lagos is growing so rapidly is that Nigeria is developing, although it has oil it is still stage 2 in the DTM, due to Nigeria being poor it lacks resources of all kinds, so most economic activity concentrates in one place and all the people head there. Furthermore large parts of Africa is facing unpredictable weather with battering droughts, this forces villagers who rely on farming to move to the city where there is hopes of food, work and other services.

People are pushed from the countryside rapidly due to the machinery in farming just like 20^th century farmers in England faced, but since technology doesn’t need to be invented it arrives quicker, thus pushing labourers away. Because Lagos is so big lots of government attention is overlooked in rural areas and any development seems to concentrate in urban areas, this causes decline of the infrastructure and services. The over excessive oil drilling has scarred the land forcing people to be moved as they live above oil or that oil is polluting their crops. Lagos provides some very attractive incentives to the rural Nigerian, 70% of industrial investment is focused in Lagos which will create jobs short and long term. The oil production has increased 7-fold during 1965-1973, this meant Lagos contributed to 40% of Nigeria’s oil trade. 90% of people in Lagos have access to electricity even though it is unreliable people don’t really care as in the rural villages electricity wasn’t available at all. Lagos has the highest literacy rates in the country so the expectation of better education is desired by the migrant.  Government initiatives like bus routes allow good access around the city whilst reducing carbon emissions and avoiding he traffic, a dream for migrants who have to find jobs far from their home. All these push factors from the rural areas and pull factors to Lagos drive the rapid urbanisation, but can Lagos keep up?

 

Rapid urbanisation does hinder development into a world city; it can be seen through factors such as the competition for jobs, large amounts of the city aren’t pushing towards formal work then companies will struggle to make money hence the county can’t develop economically. In 1999 official unemployment was 28%, this forces people to work illegally and doesn’t help the country to develop economically, yes illegal work contributes to the economy but it can’t be relied on and as more on more people arrive each day formal work is in short supply. The culture of certain groups such as Yoruba society sees women as inferior and easier to exploit, the way some women are exploited in the work places sees a lack of female workers, a world city defines a vivid culture and if women are being mass exploited and ignored in the work place that doesn’t help to develop into a world city.

However the rapid population does help develop a city into a world city, a sort of proof is looking at the history of cities like London, Paris, New York, they all struggled to get to the stage they are now. There is no set plan to becoming a world city due to many external factors like world economy or the climate and location of the city. Lagos has the advantage of being a port city with lots of oil wealth, as oil prices rise the Nigerians will become richer, this will allow for developments in housing and creating business opportunities. With aid from developed country plus the oil wealth the electricity will become more reliable and distribution of clean water will be more readily available reducing damage to health and improved quality of life. The vast population will be able make government initiatives such as the bus routes an economic success and will allow for more improvements in infrastructure as an example, this improvement will reduce traffic potentially increasing work efficiency and giving working people more time at home to cook or go out. As the city grows larger and larger tourist industry may spark with more adventurous tourists visiting such a huge city, the same may happen for businesses. Shops May quickly become supermarkets due to sheer number of people entering the shop to buy stuff, supermarkets may then grow to huge franchises this will provide jobs and economic growth for the government. Lastly as more and more people arrive the culture diversifies, yes the sexism needs to be sorted but the mix of religions and beliefs creates a vibrant culture.

To conclude I feel rapid urbanisation does more to help a city become a world city; this can be seen largely as history providing the best example with all the world cities today going through the rough stages of the DTM, to growing in size and struggling to the powerhouses they are now. Furthermore more people create an incentive for international business to move in, diversifies the culture, the city has large political influence because it houses so many people. Although the city struggles to get education to all the children and the infrastructure is bursting at the seams, unique government initiatives like bus routes and recycling dumps allows people free access to trade the treasures they find or upgrade their homes with unwanted metals and plastics. Furthermore with the developing world able to provide help through finances, charity or business opportunities it gives Lagos the upper hand.   The rapid urbanisation does hinder the path to become a world city yes, sheer volume of people puts massive strains on the infrastructure and housing industry, social tension can rise between long term residents and new migrants this could cause problems with crime or political unrest. But I do feel rapid urbanisation helps more than hinder on the path to becoming a world city, yet there is no definite path so Lagos is neither right nor wrong in its advance to become the world city it is slowly becoming.