Ayetoro, a coastal fishing community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, is being steadily swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean as coastal erosion continues to destroy homes, public facilities and livelihoods.
Nicknamed “The Happy Place”, Ayetoro is home to about 10,000 people and was founded in 1947 by communist-inspired Christians who sought to build a society based on communal ownership.
But decades later, the community is facing an uncertain future as the shoreline continues to retreat.
According to a study by spatial planning specialist Barnabas Ogirima James, Ayetoro’s coastline receded by an average of 15 metres (50 feet) annually between 1987 and 2022.
The situation has left residents repeatedly rebuilding their homes further inland, only for the advancing ocean to destroy them again.
“We are walking on people’s houses,” 35-year-old fisherman Thompson Akingboye said while walking along a narrow strip of sand accessible only by boat.
Akingboye said he had lost his father’s house to the ocean in 2019 and described himself as “a refugee in my own community”. He said the only thing he managed to save was his university degree certificate.
The traditional king of Ayetoro, Oluwambe Ojagbohunmi, said his palace once had 100 rooms, but only about a dozen remain after years of coastal erosion.
“I took this photo 14 years ago. Today, if you stand in the exact spot where I was, you’ll see there are no buildings left,” he said.
The king said the ocean had reached the part of the palace closest to the shoreline, with crashing waves disturbing his sleep at night.
“This is our land. Where can we go? It’s complicated,” he said.
Sea-level rise worsens erosion
Coastal erosion in Ayetoro has intensified since the early 2000s, with 19 other communities in the Ilaje district facing similar threats.
A 2024 study published in Scientific Reports estimated that sea-level rise along West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea was about 3.9 millimetres per year, approximately 10.5 per cent above the global average.
Experts say climate change, rising sea levels and human activities along Nigeria’s coastline are worsening the situation.
Oluwasegun Babatunde Esan, a landscape architecture researcher at the University of Lagos who collaborates with Harvard University, said the growing demand for land was contributing to the problem.
He said floodplains, swamps and coastal areas that naturally absorb ocean surges and floodwater are increasingly being cleared for housing and industrial activities.
Esan called for stricter regulation of development along vulnerable areas and recommended natural barriers such as mangroves and coconut palms.
Health, education services disrupted
The destruction has also severely affected essential services in Ayetoro.
The community’s only health centre has been lost to the sea, leaving healthcare workers operating in increasingly difficult conditions.
“Sometimes the water reaches window level, yet we have to keep working. We help women give birth under these conditions. We have no choice,” healthcare worker Omomiye Oluwaseun, 26, said.
She said residents face health problems linked to contaminated water, including high blood pressure and water-borne diseases such as typhoid and diarrhoea.
“The sea has already contaminated the water supply, yet they use it for cooking because it is the only water available to them,” she said.
Education has also been disrupted, with schools repeatedly relocated as the ocean encroaches on the community.
Teacher Sunday Akinjoye, 45, said the repeated displacement was affecting pupils psychologically and making it harder for them to concentrate on their studies.
“Schools have been relocated several times, just like their homes. It takes a psychological toll on them. Their ability to concentrate on their studies drops drastically,” he said.
Ayetoro receives occasional relief materials from government agencies and non-governmental organisations, but residents say the assistance is insufficient.
For families who have already lost their homes several times, the Atlantic continues to advance with little sign of stopping.
