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#WaveWise: How Two Youth Climate Leaders Are Turning Flood-Hit Itowolo Into a Model of Resilience

In flood-ravaged Itowolo, two young climate leaders are driving change through WaveWise, a bold, youth-led initiative blending education, advocacy and community action to build resilience and demand accountability.


25th July 2025 12:21 PM

For years, the people of Itowolo, a riverside settlement between Mile 12 and Ikorodu, have endured flood after flood, their homes and schools routinely destroyed. Infrastructure failed, Officials looked away. But this year, for the first time in a long time, the tide began to change.

On June 5, two young climate advocates, Munnir Adams and Lawal Kikelomo, launched WaveWise, a youth-led, community-driven resilience project aimed at tackling Itowolo’s persistent flooding and environmental degradation. 

The initiative aims to provide children and their families the tools to both understand and confront the dangers they face. WaveWise brings together Adams’ Clime With Me, focused on civic climate action, and Kikelomo’s CleanAir360, which tackles air pollution in vulnerable communities.

The pair are Run Leaders at Urban Better, a data-driven advocacy movement with a large chunk of its work focused on air quality. For them, what began as a simple field visit to assess air quality has evolved into an urgent grassroots climate intervention in Lagos State.

The Heartbreaking Reality of Itowolo Primary School

Itowolo sits dangerously close to the Ogun River. Every rainy season, the community suffers severe flooding, made worse by routine releases from the upstream Oyan Dam in Ogun State. The waters breach poorly built or entirely absent infrastructure, often cutting off access to homes and displacing residents.

Most visibly affected is Itowolo Comprehensive Primary School, where almost the entire perimeter fence has collapsed. When the floods come, they overrun the grounds, destroy classroom blocks, and expose children to health hazards.

“The school has no working toilets, no clean water, and no proper drainage,” said Adams. “One part of the broken fence is now a dumpsite. Yet, it remains the only public school for kilometres.”

The state of the school, both physically and symbolically, reflects deeper systemic failures. It is not just infrastructure that is broken, but trust in institutions and the belief that help is coming. According to Adams, “The learning situation in Itowolo Community Primary School isn’t something I think would only worry someone in climate justice or air quality work. It's a human problem, and I feel anyone, regardless of background, should feel it and want to do something about it.”

A Chance Discovery of a Town Too Familiar With Flood

In April, Adams and Kikelomo arrived in Itowolo during routine fieldwork as part of their fellowship with UrbanBetter, an Africa-led initiative focused on making cities healthier through citizen-led research and advocacy.

“We were directed there by a resident from another community,” said Kikelomo. “She told us Itowolo was being hit even harder. She was right.”

Instead of prescribing solutions, the pair spent weeks speaking to residents, visiting the school and observing patterns of flooding and waste buildup. The result was WaveWise, a multiphase campaign blending climate education, youth leadership and direct engagement with state institutions.

“Unlike many awareness-focused campaigns, ”Adams said, “WaveWise doesn’t shy away from calling out the institutions responsible for fixing the problem. Awareness is good but without accountability, it becomes performative. We are trying to make the system fix itself by amplifying the voices of affected people, especially children.”

They sent letters to the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA), the Lagos State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB), and the Ikorodu-West Local Council Development Area (LCDA). But they also took care to work with traditional leaders and local families to build trust and momentum from within.

Recently, they had a visit with the project team from LASUBEB to measure and assess the level of work needed to be done in the school. The pair revealed that after the visit, the project team mentioned that they would submit a proposal and wait for approval.

Children Take The Lead

The public launch of WaveWise marked a key milestone: the start of a six-month Climate Resilience Fellowship for children in Itowolo. On the first day, the children visualised what air polluiton is and the factors that cause both good and bad air quality through art. Through these and other tools, they are learning about the environment in ways that are practical, playful and grounded in their own lived experience.

“My biggest hope is that these children walk away with agency — the belief that they are not powerless and that living in a limiting environment shouldn’t limit their ability to strive,” said Kikelomo. “I want them to understand climate change, not as some distant global issue but as something that touches their everyday lives and more importantly, something they can shape.”

The fellowship also includes clean-up campaigns, storytelling sessions, Cityzen science's activities and a growing archive of local environmental knowledge. More importantly, it is helping to document and amplify the community’s demands to the state government.

At the event, the town’s traditional ruler (Baale), his chiefs, parents and youths participated in a dialogue where they voiced their expectations and hopes for meaningful, sustained change.

“The conversation is shifting,” said Kikelomo. “People who used to feel powerless are now saying, ‘We need to be part of this.’”

Government Engagement: A Mixed Bag

While WaveWise has stirred excitement within the community, interactions with government agencies have been far less inspiring.

According to Adams, it has been a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. He recalled an early effort to involve a relevant agency by sharing pictures and videos of the school’s condition. A representative was sent to inspect the site but what followed was both surprising and disappointing.

“They took pictures of only the front part of the school, the newest of three classroom blocks,  and ignored the other, far more dilapidated ones. Even that newer block isn’t in great shape,” Adams explained. “Then they claimed the dumpsite wasn’t inside the school at all but in another compound. Our contact shared screenshots of this response and hasn’t replied to us since.”

The team had hoped that a commitment to rebuild the school’s collapsed fence would materialise within three months. That, too, has stalled.

“Responses have varied depending on the ministry or agency, but overall, the message is clear: Itowolo Community Primary School isn’t a priority. We keep hearing things like, ‘Maybe next year,’” Adams said.

He added with urgency: “Every day of inaction is both a broken promise and a denial of a better future for the children of Itowolo.”

A Hopeful Race Against Time

Originally designed as a phased campaign, WaveWise is now being implemented simultaneously across all fronts, which includes youth education, government engagement and public mobilisation. The urgency on the ground has forced the project to move quickly and adapt constantly.

Still, Adams and Kikelomo remain optimistic. They are calling on the Lagos State government and civil society partners to support their work and take more decisive action to protect communities like Itowolo. They believe that governance will prevail in this case, regardless of how difficult the system makes it. 

WaveWise may still be in early stages but it already offers a template: data-informed advocacy, youth-led learning, local ownership and persistent pressure on the appropriate authorities