“I make N10,000 from every trip and many times I go at least twice a day.”Īdelike says the trade has provided funds for him to start building a two-bedroom apartment in another state where his family resides. The one that is scooped from shoreline is about N20,000 per 20 tonnes…you can find some impurities in those ones.” We sell sharp sand that has no impurities N42,000 per 20 tonnes if it’s to Lekki, Ajah or Badore. He said, “The price of the sand pumped from the Lagoon is different from the one that is dug with shovels from the shoreline. While residents lament, business is booming for 32-year-old James Adelike, who operates a pay loader that conveys the dredged sand to various destinations in Lagos. It was smack in the middle of the Lagoon front. Indeed, a massive dredging machine was the most prominent fixture on the island the day our correspondent visited. While most people came to the Island to patronise fishermen, many come these days to siphon the sand along its coastline. “I don’t have the money to buy that kind of boat and it is not safe.”Ī dredging machine on the Lagoon front in Sabon Kodji. To do that, I need an engine boat that can withstand the tides and more fuel to power it through the long hours that I will be on water. If I don’t set traps at the deeper end of the ocean, I won’t get anything. “The noise from the machines when they are working also disturbs them. The sand they are harvesting has also polluted the Lagoon and fishes can’t stay. “The dredging machines have chased fishes to the deeper end. To do that, I need a boat that can withstand the tides and more fuel to power it.' 'If I don't set traps at the deeper end of the ocean, I won't get anything. Ujemeji says he can no longer fish on the Lagoon front due to the dredging activities in the area.

He says a new business in the waterfront community has made a mess of his trade. Ujemeji confessed that he’s fast losing his commercial reputation. What the fisherman had on display was incapable of attracting a longtime customer, let alone a prospective one. Ujemeji Thomas, a fisherman, says dredging machines have chased fish from the Lagoon in Bishop Kodji Island. Image by Bukola Adebayo.

Dredging mining environmental impact