It’s 2pm in Sagbo Kodji, a coastal community that overlooks the Lagos Apapa seaports and high-rise buildings of Lagos Island, the commercial district of the city.
Close to a littered jetty, where passengers disembark from dozens of wooden boats, stands Bolanle Taiwo’s wooden house.
For laundry, Bolanle Taiwo uses water from a public well. Well water is hard and forces her to use more detergent to make it lather up. She fetches well water and allows it to settle for a few days before using it. (Photo: Nengi Nelson)
Under the scorching sun, the single mother hunches over a green bucket of water, preparing to wash a pile of clothes before sundown. She adds a handful of detergent into the water she got from a nearby well, but it does not lather with soap because it’s “hard water” — water with a high concentration of dissolved minerals.