OSOPADEC seeks international support to halt coastal erosion in Ondo communities

IThe Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission has called for urgent international support to tackle coastal erosion and protect vulnerable communities in the state, warning that rising sea levels are threatening lives, homes and historic settlements.

The commission’s Chairman, Prince Olabiyi Olaleye Poroye, made the appeal on Tuesday while addressing a session at the Nigeria Pavilion during the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Turkey.

Poroye, who spoke at a session titled Saving the Vanishing Coast: The Just Transition for an Oil-Producing Shore, identified Ayetoro in Ilaje Local Government Area as one of the communities bearing the devastating effects of environmental degradation despite being surrounded by offshore oil resources.

He recalled that Ayetoro had achieved remarkable development through communal efforts, noting that residents established their own electricity generation system in 1953, built boats and organised economic activities long before many other communities enjoyed similar facilities.

However, he lamented that decades of environmental deterioration had left the coastal settlement struggling with advancing ocean waters, unreliable electricity and unsafe transportation routes.

Describing the hardship facing residents, Poroye said children were forced to study with lanterns, fishermen lacked adequate facilities to preserve their catches, while sick residents often travelled across dangerous waterways to access medical care.

He consequently unveiled a proposed pilot programme involving solar-powered mini-grids and safer water transportation systems for vulnerable communities along the Ilaje coastline. He said the initiative would require international partnerships and financial support to become reality.

The OSOPADEC chairman, who spoke on behalf of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the commission’s board and management, maintained that the energy transition would be meaningless if oil-producing communities continued to suffer neglect.

Also speaking, the senator representing Ondo South, Prof Dayo Faduyile, disclosed that more than 80 per cent of Ayetoro had been lost to ocean encroachment, including residential buildings, schools, health facilities, religious centres and traditional institutions.

Faduyile said he had moved a motion at the Senate on October 22 seeking urgent intervention for Ayetoro and other endangered coastal communities, adding that the lawmakers unanimously supported the proposal for a comprehensive shoreline protection programme involving relevant federal and state agencies.

He said the Senate had also called on the National Emergency Management Agency to provide relief to displaced residents and urged the Federal Government to explore international climate adaptation funding to address the growing threat.

Meanwhile, a representative of Ayetoro community, Prophet Oluwambe Ojagbohunmi, described the settlement’s decline as a major loss to Nigeria’s cultural and developmental heritage.

Ojagbohunmi recalled that the community once operated textile factories, a central cafeteria, a 200-room palace and a technical college, describing it as a model of communal development and shared prosperity.

He said the destruction of several historic structures by the Atlantic Ocean had erased important parts of the community’s heritage, presenting historical photographs and documents to demonstrate Ayetoro’s past and the scale of the environmental damage.