By Esther Olubukola Adedeji

For many decades, manual sand mining has been a traditional occupation of the Rabaka community in Lagos state, Nigeria.

Skilled male divers fill buckets of sand from the bottom of the lagoon and load them onto canoes. Women generally stockpile this sand for sale to truck drivers, earning about a thousand naira per day (less than US$2), unless they own a canoe, which allows them to employ divers and stockpilers of their own.

This traditional method of sand mining sustained livelihoods for decades by balancing sand harvesting with what the environment could sustainably provide.

However, it took only a few years for mechanization to take over. Foreign men arrived in the region and began using powerful mechanized dredgers and tractors to load the trucks, extracting tons of sand within a few hours and rapidly pushing the manual sand miners out of business.

Although the resulting environmental degradation and complaints from citizens led to the former governor of Lagos state banning sand mining in some areas, these activities have continued illegally.

The consequences for the communities have been enormous, particularly for women who are now losing access to this source of livelihood without a viable alternative. Many women have resorted to other activities, including harvesting mangroves for sale as firewood; collecting and selling plastic bottles from the lagoon; and unregulated fishing.

Esther Olubukola Adedeji is an Environmentalist and currently a Senior Consultant with Carbon Limits Nigeria.

This article was first published on ORRAA report; Putting Sand on Ocean Sustainability Agenda.