Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

🇳🇬 Benin City is the capital, and largest city of Edo State in southern Nigeria. Benin City is the centre of Nigeria's rubber industry, and oil production is also a significant industry.

The city was the most important settlement of the Edo Kingdom of Benin, which flourished during the 13th to the 19th century. It held important trade relations with Portugal during the last centuries before being captured, sacked and burnt in 1897 by a British punitive expedition. Many bronze sculptures in Benin City palace, collectively termed the Benin Bronzes, were taken by the British who followed up their victory by gradually colonizing the area, eventually incorporating the region into Colonial Nigeria.

The indigenous people of Benin City are the Edo people (the Benin People), and they speak the Edo language or Bini Language. The people of the city have one of the richest dress cultures on the African continent and are known for their beads (the beads stand for royalty and usually stand out during the traditional marriage of the Benin people), body marks, bangles, anklets, raffia work and the subsistence farming of yam, plantain and cassava.

Following Nigeria's independence from British rule in 1960, Benin City became the capital of Mid-Western Region when the region was split from Western Region in June 1963. In 1976 when the region was renamed as Bendel State, it remained the capital of the region and became the State Capital of Edo State when Bendel state was split into Delta State and Edo State in 1991.

Climate change The city is already feeling the effects of climate change, with increases and temperature, humidity and precipitation trends between 1981 and 2015.

Flood management Benin city experiences regular flooding. Studies have consistently highlighted the problem since at least 1993. Experts have recommended a number of ways to improve flood management, including better controls on land use, construction and development, improved Community-based programs designed to improve city adaptation and disaster management, and improvements in individual preparedness. In June 2020, a significant number of communities and individuals were left homeless because of city flooding. At the time, residents and the city blamed poor storm drains and a failure to continue flood adaptation programs.

Urban heating The city, on average is .5 degrees Celsius warmer than the surrounding rural areas, and these temperature differences are greater during workweeks when human activity increases pollution in the urban area.

Waste management A 2021 study published in Nature, highlighted that the city has not met the standards for waste management set by the Edo State Waste Management Board. After surveying 2720 inhabitants of the city, the authors found that most people in the city didn't understand proper waste management practices. Moreover, the study found that survey participants didn't understand how waste management was connected to other issues like greenhouse gas emissions. An additional study, found that most residents didn't understand the health impacts of bad waste management.