Gloria Odion, reporter 

The Blue Lagos Sustainability Initiative, in partnership with Uriel Construction Limited, has commenced the construction of five solar-powered boreholes across underserved riverine communities in Lagos State as part of efforts to improve access to safe water and promote sustainable community development.

The projects, sponsored by the Koh Pbat Campaign Team through Uriel Construction Limited, cover five communities across Badagry, Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo and Epe Local Government Areas.

The development coincides with a multi-sectoral medical and humanitarian outreach organised by Blue Lagos at Ebute Ajagun, Iworo, in Badagry Local Government Area, where residents of neighbouring riverine communities received free medical services, food assistance, livelihood support and life jackets.

The interventions reflect the initiative’s commitment to addressing challenges confronting coastal and riverine communities, particularly limited access to healthcare, safe drinking water, livelihood opportunities and waterway safety.

The five solar-powered borehole projects are strategically located to improve access to reliable water supplies in underserved communities.

The beneficiary communities are:

– Seje Jegba, Badagry Local Government Area.
– Sagbonkodji, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area.
– Olomometa, Ojo Local Government Area.
– Agadangba, Ward C1, Epe Local Government Area.
– Igbo Apawa, Ward D1, Epe Local Government Area.

According to the initiative, the projects are expected to ease the difficulties residents face in accessing safe water for domestic use while improving sanitation, public health and household welfare.

The adoption of solar-powered systems is also expected to support sustainable water supply by reducing dependence on conventional electricity, particularly in communities where infrastructure challenges often affect access to essential services.

Access to safe water remains critical to public health, hygiene and overall living standards. The projects therefore represent an effort to complement immediate humanitarian assistance with infrastructure that can deliver lasting benefits to beneficiary communities.

In a related development, Blue Lagos has extended its community development interventions to Badagry through a multi-sectoral medical and humanitarian outreach held at Ebute Ajagun, Iworo.

The programme reached residents of Daddy Louis, Ajido, Etesa, Epe and Ebute Eleja, among other riverine communities, many of whom face geographical and infrastructural barriers to accessing basic healthcare and other essential services.

The outreach featured free medical services sponsored by the Medical and Safety Directorate of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors (RHA), alongside food palliatives donated by the RHA’s Humanitarian Affairs Directorate.

Residents also received fish-smoking kilns donated by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Dr Oreoluwa Finnih, to support local livelihoods.

In addition, the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) donated life jackets to promote safety among residents who rely on boats and other water transportation for fishing, commuting and other daily activities.

The distribution of life jackets forms part of broader efforts to encourage safer use of Lagos waterways, particularly among people whose livelihoods depend on water transportation.

Speaking on the interventions, the Team Lead of Blue Lagos, Mr Saheed Adesanya, reaffirmed the initiative’s commitment to promoting inclusive development by ensuring that residents of underserved coastal and riverine communities across Lagos State have access to essential services, humanitarian support and sustainable development opportunities, regardless of their geographical location.

Adesanya explained that the ongoing intervention in Badagry Local Government Area builds on previous community development initiatives carried out in several riverine communities across the state, including Sagbonkodji, Bishop Kodji, Takwa Bay and Ilado-Odo in Amuwo-Odofin, as well as Yegunda, Ito Omu, Isan, Oko-Abe, Ito Osun, Saga, Emina and Take Nla in Epe, among other locations.

He noted that these interventions reflect Blue Lagos’ broader commitment to addressing the developmental challenges confronting communities in hard-to-reach areas, particularly those with limited access to basic infrastructure, healthcare services, safe drinking water and other essential amenities.

According to him, the initiative adopts a community-centred approach that combines immediate humanitarian assistance with practical, long-term interventions aimed at improving public health, strengthening local livelihoods, enhancing waterway safety and promoting sustainable development.

He added that the approach is designed to address both the immediate needs of residents and the underlying challenges affecting their overall well-being.

Adesanya further emphasised the importance of partnerships in achieving meaningful and lasting development outcomes, noting that collaboration with organisations such as Uriel Construction Limited enables Blue Lagos to extend its reach and deliver interventions that respond to the specific needs of underserved communities.

He maintained that the initiative would continue to identify priority areas requiring intervention, engage relevant stakeholders and implement targeted projects that improve living conditions, expand access to essential services and create opportunities for inclusive growth across Lagos State.

He added that Blue Lagos remains committed to ensuring that residents of coastal and riverine communities are not left behind in the state’s development efforts, stressing that sustainable progress can only be achieved when the needs of all communities are recognised and addressed.

Blue Lagos acknowledged the support of its patron, Mr Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, Special Adviser to the Governor on Blue Economy, for his strategic engagement and contributions towards advancing the initiative’s objectives.

The initiative also commended LASWA for donating life jackets to improve safety among residents who depend on Lagos waterways.

It further recognised Dr Oreoluwa Finnih, Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals, for supporting the medical outreach and donating fish-smoking kilns to promote livelihood development.

Special appreciation was extended to the Humanitarian Affairs Directorate of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, under the leadership of Ms Bisola Olusanya, for providing food palliatives distributed during the outreach and other community interventions.

The Koh Pbat Campaign Team was also commended for sponsoring the five solar-powered borehole projects through Uriel Construction Limited, describing the contribution as an important step towards improving access to essential water infrastructure in underserved riverine communities.

Blue Lagos emphasised that sustained collaboration among government agencies, corporate organisations, humanitarian groups, development partners and community stakeholders is essential to expanding access to healthcare, safe water, economic opportunities and waterway safety.

As the initiative continues to extend its interventions across Badagry, Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo, Epe and other riverine areas of Lagos State, it reiterated its commitment to inclusive and sustainable development under its guiding principle: “No Community Is Left Behind.”

Gloria Odion, Reporter 

The Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) marked the 2026 World Tourism Day with a multi-zone celebration across the country, combining professional training, technology, destination marketing, tourism awareness and domestic tourism promotion.

In the South-West, nearly 200 tour operators converged on Ziba Beach Resort, Lagos, where the association turned the World Tourism Day celebration into a practical classroom on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital tools to transform tour operations and destination marketing.

The Federal Capital Territory and Northern Zone, in collaboration with Naija Adventurers, organised a Tourism Awareness Walk and hike to the Centre of Nigeria, while the South-South Zone celebrated with a destination tour designed to promote tourism attractions within the region.

The activities were organised in line with the 2026 World Tourism Day theme, “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism.”

Speaking during the South-West celebration in Lagos, NATOP President, Hajia Bolaji Mustapha, said the decision to combine the annual celebration with professional training was aimed at equipping tour operators with the knowledge and digital skills required to remain competitive in a rapidly changing tourism industry.

According to her, the training was designed to teach operators how to deploy AI and other digital tools to promote destinations, create compelling tourism content and grow their businesses.

“We follow the theme and blend it with the current situation. Let’s do the training so that we attach it to World Tourism Day, with the theme, and make sure that we have achieved something while also celebrating,” she said.

Mustapha said the training would help tour operators produce better digital content and use AI to tell compelling stories about Nigerian destinations.

She stressed that operators needed to embrace the digital revolution rather than allow emerging content creators to take over a space traditionally occupied by professional tour operators.

“As tour operators who are willing to tell the good story of Nigeria, we need to bring ourselves up to speed and align with the digital revolution. Let everybody go digital,” she said.

“We also see content creators taking our business, so we want to align with what they do.

“We are the ones who understand the business, and we will be able to tell the story better, so that anybody coming to Nigeria will be able to discover Nigeria with the experts.”

Why Ziba Beach Resort

Explaining the choice of Ziba Beach Resort as the venue, the NATOP President said the association deliberately links its World Tourism Day activities to tourism destinations in order to expose members to facilities and attractions they can subsequently market to tourists.

She said the resort was particularly suitable because of its location and recent expansion, including the launch of its third phase.

“We always attach World Tourism Day to a tourism site. If you look at this whole area and this community, that’s why we see that Ziba is a tourism site. We want to explore it and, of course, the resort has newly launched its third phase.

“We will use this opportunity to look at their rooms, look at how we can sell this destination, and showcase it as a resort that is actually in Nigeria, not Zanzibar. By using the place, we would kill two birds with one stone,” she said.

The operators subsequently embarked on a facility tour of the resort, assessing its accommodation, recreational and other tourism offerings from the perspective of how they could be packaged and marketed to visitors.

Training critical to industry growth

Also speaking, NATOP Vice President, South-West, and Chairman of the zone’s World Tourism Day Organising Committee, Mrs Wonuola Olatunde-Lamidi, said the training was necessary because many operators still lacked adequate knowledge of the fundamentals of tour operation.

She particularly identified tour-package development as an area where some operators needed stronger professional capacity.

“Many don’t understand the foundation of what it is to create a tour package. And when you have people that are not well-trained in an industry, the industry will not grow,” she said.

Olatunde-Lamidi, who said she had spent 16 years in the industry and co-runs Diamonds and Pearls Travels with her husband, explained that professional competence and effective destination marketing could significantly influence where tourists choose to visit.

She said her company had evolved from being perceived merely as a travel agency into a Destination Management Company (DMC) and a trusted tourism brand through deliberate destination promotion.

“We have become a company that, when we talk about a destination, people want to go to that destination because of how we have portrayed the destination,” she said.

According to her, tour operators have considerable influence over destination choices because of their ability to package, market and communicate the attractions and benefits of particular destinations.

“You may not realise that, as tour operators, you can actually decide where people go. You can make people go to a particular destination by marketing it, by letting them know the benefits of that destination,” she said.

The World Tourism Day programme therefore combined learning with leisure, as participants had the opportunity to tour Ziba Beach Resort, inspect its facilities and unwind as part of the celebration.

For NATOP, the 2026 celebration provided an opportunity not only to commemorate World Tourism Day but also to reinforce the need for professional capacity development, digital transformation and stronger destination storytelling as tools for growing Nigeria’s tourism industry.

Gloria Odion, Maritime reporter 

Residents, motorists, port workers and business owners along Marine Road, off Liverpool Road in Apapa, Lagos, have raised the alarm over the rapid deterioration of the road, warning that its continued collapse could trigger a humanitarian, traffic and commercial crisis within Nigeria’s busiest port corridor.

The road, a critical access route serving residential communities, commercial establishments and port users, has developed extensive cracks and deep structural fissures, with large sections of the asphalt visibly sinking and showing signs of imminent failure.

A visit to the area revealed a disturbing scene of widening cracks stretching across the carriageway, while portions of the road have caved in, creating dangerous cavities that now threaten both motorists and pedestrians.

To avert accidents, residents have improvised temporary safety measures by placing concrete traffic drums and caution tapes around the failed sections.

However, they said these makeshift barriers offer little protection, especially at night when visibility is poor.

The situation has heightened fears that the continuous movement of heavy-duty trucks and articulated vehicles serving the ports could accelerate the road’s collapse.

Residents warned that if urgent intervention is not undertaken, Marine Road could become completely impassable, cutting off access to residential estates, business premises and key transport links along the Liverpool Road corridor, while worsening Apapa’s already notorious traffic congestion.

Beyond the safety concerns, the deteriorating road is disrupting daily economic activities.

Motorists are forced to manoeuvre around the failed sections, causing delays, while pedestrians navigate dangerously close to the collapsing edges.

Many residents attributed the worsening condition to recent heavy rainfall, noting that the cracks have expanded significantly, an indication that the underlying structure may have suffered extensive damage.

“This is no longer an ordinary pothole. The road is collapsing before our eyes. The cracks become wider every day, and everyone using this road fears the worst.

“If nothing is done urgently, we are simply waiting for a disaster,” one resident lamented.

Another commuter described the failed section as “a ticking time bomb,” warning that the weight of a heavily loaded truck or another bout of prolonged rainfall could trigger a complete collapse.

The worsening condition of Marine Road has also raised concerns about the potential impact on commercial activities within the Apapa port environment.

As one of the strategic access roads in the area, any disruption could impede the movement of cargo, workers and businesses that depend on the corridor.

Stakeholders have therefore appealed to the Apapa Local Government, the Lagos State Government, the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, and other relevant agencies to immediately conduct a comprehensive structural assessment of the damaged section and commence emergency reconstruction.

They argued that proactive intervention would not only safeguard lives and property but also prevent a more expensive and disruptive infrastructure failure with far-reaching economic consequences.

The residents further urged emergency management agencies to strengthen safety measures around the affected section pending permanent repairs.

For those who live and work along Marine Road, the consensus is clear: every day of delay increases the likelihood of a catastrophic collapse.

With the road surface continuing to sink and visible cracks widening by the day, they insist that immediate government intervention is imperative to avert what they describe as a looming disaster.