There are many reasons why people embark on land reclamation. Some of the reasons are:
- Insufficient land: People embark on Land reclamation because of small size of their land. In order to expand the existing land, they therefore embark on land reclamation.
- Population pressure: As the population increases, the need arises to reclaim existing land that have been occupied by water.
- For pleasure purposes: People reclaim land to enjoy the cool breeze from the sea.
- For residential purposes: Due to scarcity of land to build coupled with high cost of accommodation, people embark on land reclamation in order to build houses for residential purposes.
- For commercial purposes: Trade and other commercial activities are created when land is reclaimed. This is very common in Lagos state.
- For industrial purposes: Industrialist do engage themselves in land reclamation in order to site industries in the new area.
- For socio-cultural purposes: Most cultural and social activities like markets, churches, mosques and trade are cited where land have been reclaimed.