Lagos is Africa's megacity, home to 24 million people. It's very close to
the water, and that's also one of the big challenges. So Lagos has traditionally been
you know suffering from floods, either from rainfall floods, but also storm surges,
and what we are now seeing is a change in, you know, the severity and frequency of these events.
So Lagos is already starting to feel the impact of climate change.
These are significant changes which actually means that some of these areas
have to be transformed into what's called floating cities,
and that's now being seen as a potential solution for some other neighbourhoods.
Jakarta is located in a lowland delta area and I mean, I think
50% of that area is below regional water levels and in some parts of the city
close to 90% of the city is already below current sea levels.
Through Jakarta you also see a lot of rivers and canals that flow through the city but projections
show that they're actually gonna be stopped from flowing freely to the sea and will
actually clog up and then cause a lot of flooding also to areas that currently are not exposed.
I think with with Jakarta we've seen now actually the decision by
the government to really get serious about relocating the capital away
to another part of the country, and you know, that just shows you how dramatic it is.
Mumbai is also exposed to sea level rise as well as
to, you know, significant extreme rainfall and anybody who's been there
knows that this city actually is quite used to deal with monsoon floods.
What is happening now is that more and more areas that were previously, you know, safe from seawater
are seeing regular floods through storm surges and, you know, that's a pattern
we're expecting to see 25% increase in flash flood intensity by 2050.
The flood problems can be visible but also invisible. So you can either be
directly affected, you know, because your house or your place of work or
your transport link is underwater and can't function, or it can be indirectly because
the infrastructure system just can't cope. And that's probably the even bigger threat here.
What gives me some confidence is I sense there's now a better understanding of,
you know, dealing with climate change as an investment and not a cost.
and when we talk about all these economic stimulus
packages that are being promised, you know, there is a notion that that needs to be green
and clean and also helping, you know, increase resilience. And, you know, I really hope that that
is not just lip service and a nice commitment to put somewhere and nobody then follows it through.