Ayetoro is a coastal community in Ilaje, Ondo State Nigeria. Like Ayetoro, Venice, located in Northeastern Italy, is also coastal. In Venice, there are no roads, just canals. Movement happens through canoes or maybe speedboats. Beyond its urbanization, Venice is desirable for its comfort and safety. People believe that despite being surrounded by open waters, you won’t get sick visiting there. If I offered to sponsor a two-month trip to Venice, you’d want to go. Easily!
The development of an embankment in the Ayetoro community has been a talking point for more than 20 years. Ayetoro faces a major crisis due to destruction caused by sea incursions and erosion. Yet every election cycle, politicians go there for campaigns. “We’ll do this! We’ll do that!” But the crisis lingers. The money used to renovate government houses would be enough to build the embankment and prevent the impending extinction of this coastal community.
I haven’t always been interested in the environment and coastal communities. Growing up in the early 2000s, whenever it rained and flooded, I had only one thought: no school. The resulting transportation issues that came with the flood meant staying home to sleep comfortably. I had been part of the problem as a child, disposing of waste in water channels, thinking rain would wash them away. I was contributing to already polluted waterways without knowing it, or more honestly, I didn’t care at the time.
It was what I saw everyone in my community do and I didn’t understand the effects or question why this had to be the norm. There was another pattern I noticed but never questioned. We ate fish regularly in our house and certain fish species would suddenly increase in price from the last purchase. This was understandable during off-seasons, but these were normal seasons when fish simply become scarcer in the waters. I witnessed this frequently growing up, dismissing it as just how things were.
“Why is this fish so expensive now?” I once asked my mother. She shrugged “the fishermen say there aren’t many left in the water.” I wanted to question further but I ended up accepting this response.
My childhood aspirations were not geared towards the environment. Everyone has different reasons that propel them to their purpose. It’s easy to call me an environmentalist, but I’m not. I think about how saying this feels like I am rejecting a call of duty. Even though environmentalism is part of what I do, that is just what it is, part of what I do. I always refer to myself as two things: a marine scientist and an ocean leader. There is a burden of responsibility that comes with these titles. There are days I’d feel like I wasn’t living up to either.
Being an “Ocean leader” has a nice ring to it, even though I’ve used this term since before completing my first degree in Fisheries and Aquaculture. I began as an ocean enthusiast with a strong passion and appreciation for the ocean, its ecosystems, and biodiversity.
Then came my master’s degree, and everything clicked.
The childhood memories suddenly made sense through an academic lens. I realized the connection between what I was learning and real-life events. Those floods that kept me home from school? In some communities, flooding goes beyond children missing school. It drives people away from their homes entirely. Those scarce fish that drove up prices? I was witnessing this depletion and understanding what causes fish loss in water bodies.
I’d admit, education got me to see all the problems I had been blind to and also how massive they were. The reality of knowing can be crippling sometimes because you start to think “What will my personal efforts do to make a real difference?”. But again, I am an ocean leader and I need to show leadership.
More than that, I regard myself as a marine scientist and being regarded as a marine scientist requires expertise, not just enthusiasm. My advanced studies armed me with the knowledge to claim this title, but more importantly, they opened my eyes to the reality of many communities like Ayetoro across Nigeria.
Honestly, I never bothered about them until beginning this academic path.
Visiting coastal communities as a Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) student, I witnessed severe water body pollution firsthand. The problems became impossible to ignore. Maybe if I had remained ignorant of these problems, it would have been easier. But here I was thinking about the effects of the pollution on people in the community and also the biodiversity–how there would be depletion of some fish species like I had noticed growing up.
During subsequent visits home to Lagos, I observed this wasn’t localized to Ondo communities. It had always existed in Lagos coastal areas too. Lagos borders lagoons, seas, and beaches. I’ve seen its water bodies heavily polluted, and this pollution is a major environmental issue.
I’m being conservative saying about 50% of Nigeria’s water bodies are polluted. In other countries, people comfortably swim at public beaches without fear. Will we ever reach that point?
Almost everyone recognizes the problems when visiting coastal communities, they are obvious. But how many people can provide solutions?
Water influx to shorelines carries waste, like what I ignorantly dumped growing up. Creating serious problems, especially in communities without access to waste management.
During one of our community conversations about necessary behavioral changes at a coastal community, I overheard someone in the distance ask: “Why are you throwing waste here? Can you not find somewhere to trash them properly?”
The question hung in the air with no answer provided. The person being questioned looked around helplessly unsure what other choice she had before walking away.
Communities are ready to explore new behaviors reducing waste pollution impact on water bodies, but they’re handicapped by systemic failures.
To change the system there is a need to do that with policy. Someone once said “the simplest way to push for policy advocacy is documentation”. It inspired me, and when we carry out projects in these communities we put this into consideration. We draft reports on the work we are able to do and the limits of our interventions, attach recommendations and when opportunities arise to speak about these issues, we utilise it.
A huge part of the solution rests on Government intervention. One community told me: “The waste management agency assigned here exists only on paper. They haven’t visited once in ten years.”
A man in that community tried creating a waste depot but didn’t know ideal dump sites should be far from residences. His site was too close to houses, and after burying waste for a while, it returned to the surface. The community king sought government intervention but was unsuccessful. Eventually, the king had to pay for excavators himself after weeks of ignored appeals. But for how long could he sustain that?
The communities know that the government is aware of what they are experiencing. “In fact, every time they campaign for elections, they come to us ushering in promises,” one resident told me.
Disappointment wells inside of me as I hear all of these. I begin to imagine them seeing me as one of the politicians or government officials making these promises. Even though I know I genuinely care, will that change anything?
These kinds of situations were what drove me to establish the NGO, Aquaworld. We address some of the issues by providing plastic collectors, ensuring separation of plastic from biodegradable waste. We establish environmental clubs where children engage in plastic collection and sell these plastics to recycling companies. What started as small-scale community intervention has grown into a network spanning multiple coastal communities.
But individual action isn’t enough. Everyone needs to be involved. You don’t need to live in coastal communities to contribute solutions. Statistics show coastal populations comprise up to 80% of the world’s population. Eventually, issues plaguing coastal communities, especially in Nigeria, will affect us all.
As an ocean leader, I am empowering young people with knowledge and opportunities to lead conservation actions. I Hope that they see issues like marine pollution control, which became my area of expertise, as serious as I see it. Marine pollution being one reason Ayetoro isn’t like Venice and its control as a path to changing that reality.
There is a lot of hope with the young people as they have the appropriate level of concern and enthusiasm about providing solutions. My fear however is what I have always believed, there is a need to employ science strongly in solving these problems. So I worry, will they be able to endure the rigour that comes with seeking science-backed solutions to the issues that confront our coastal communities?
It is important to always think about people in these communities whenever we hear about any environmental issue or challenge, because they are the ones that have been affected the most. They’re also the ones with the least resources to address these challenges effectively.
I believe African coastal communities can be healthy, with sustainable livelihoods, appealing environmental aesthetics, and protected ecosystems. It’s achievable. I think it’s very achievable. Some countries’ coastlines have accomplished this transformation. These locations, like Venice, attract vacationers because beyond comfort, their health status isn’t threatened.
Some days, this belief is all I have and I have to keep believing. I keep spreading the message in these communities, engaging with the government in ways that I can, encouraging more voices to speak out in favour of the issues and seeking science-backed solutions. The alternative is giving up but doing that leaves a community like Ayetoro to its fate.
The work continues, one coastal community at a time. Coastal communities that don’t just survive, but thrive.
Someday, I wish when people mention vacation destinations like Venice, we can also mention Ayetoro. Not as a community in crisis, but as a testament to what’s possible when we take action – lending our voice to the cause, supporting the work of other NGOs and being a part of the solution.
That dream feels closer now than it did when I first started disposing of waste in those water channels, thinking the rain would simply wash it away.
