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| Wednesday, 31 December 2003 |
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Sounding off pollution by Tharuka Dissanayaka A curious habit has developed among certain sections of our populace. The love for loudspeakers, public address systems and loud, loudness. Sri Lankans generally have no qualms about making a public nuisance of themselves, especially if they have a reason to behave in such a manner. Actually, any reason will do. A wedding? Naturally, the music has to be played VERY loudly and hopefully keep all the neighbours within a kilometer radius awake for the entire night. A party? Get a band to play and let the music crash bang into the homes of all those who were not lucky enough to be invited. A pirith at home? Do the same, only this time hopefully, all will be asked in to the venue. Individuals are not the only culprits by far. All religious institutions appear to believe that God (or man) is deaf and the worship has to be amplified many times for those ears. Otherwise could anyone explain why early morning Bana, church hymns, kovil music and Muslim prayers are blasted out over public address systems for the benefit of a few and the bane of many? Mind you, we haven't even scratched the surface of sound pollution yet. There is the entire gamut of industrial noise from throbbing generators to grating machines to constant hums and whines of heavy equipment. Construction sites are also guilty. Pile driving, concrete mixing and large drills working can become an unbearable nuisance if it is close at hand and continues incessantly throughout the day. And then comes my favourite form of noise - Musical Shows. Again it is hard to find parallel in other countries for the kind of nuisance that is wrought upon the public at large by holding musical shows in a small spare corner of a highly urban and residential area. The booming music (often not of good quality) goes on to the wee hours and easily keeps people awake within a two/three kilometer radius. A friend once complained that she had been kept up many nights in a row because the grounds by the Parliament were being used for nightly musical shows. She was particularly vexed because it was time of school exams and the children could not get much studies and even less sleep. Complaining to the police apparently does not help. Many of these shows take place with political or business patronage and the police are seen actually providing protection to the venue. They do not have a clue about controlling the noise levels. In the case of religious institutions- no one is willing to appear politically incorrect by complaining, especially if the religion is not one's own. As some people have painfully found out, complaining may bring more trouble than the nuisance itself. But the public really have no reason to bear an assault on their ears in total silence - especially in the nuisance is constant, and threatens peace and health of a household. Cover-the-limit noise is linked to difficulties in concentration and other health effects detrimental to children and adults. Noise limits that are healthy and tolerable have been gazetted as far back as 1996 and are now part of the law under the National Environmental Act. These regulations give specific top-limits to levels of sound that can exist in industrial/ urban residential and rural settings. Anything in excess, would amount to a violation of the law. But the gazette notice announcing these regulations have spelt out a specific task that local authorities are required to carry out. That is to map their area of jurisdiction in to sound zones (i.e industrial, residential etc) and work out the maximum limits in each zone. This task, unfortunately is still pending. In the meanwhile the public still has the option of complaining to the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) or the Police (!!) if need be. The CEA can undertake to measure the level of noise that is being emitted - say, from a generator in a factory - that could be bothering residents. As for musical shows and religious noise- this is a matter up to regulation by thelocal authorities and the Police- they need to take a more serious view of the problem and change their present relaxed attitude towards these miscreants. In whichever small way, taking a stand against noise is a must. Suffering in silence just won't do. |
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