Noises, noises everywhere
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Enayet Rasul
THE peace and quiet of a residential area in some parts of Dhaka and many other urban areas is shattered in the early morning with the arrival of a vendor with a push-cart fitted with a loudspeaker. The man probably sells quack medicines and draws customers by playing recorded publicities about the value and potency of his medicines in high volume through the loudspeaker. But the big noise in shrilly tones he makes is enough to completely destroy the sense of calm one looks forward to enjoying in the morning hours.
A student is preparing for the vital school leaving final exam. Suddenly, his or her concentration is undone by the loud sound of a mike. The miking again could be the doing of a vendor or anybody with the flimsiest purpose. Similarly, mikes are used in the most carefree manner in residential areas during weddings, any type of cultural and religious functions. Hindi songs in high volumes are intermittently played on some mikes with the least concern about the effect of the same on people a round who do not wish to get their eardrums beaten with the noise from such songs and music for long hours. Some peers (holymen) use mikes in the same fashion to sermonise their followers at congregations called urs or waz mehfils. But the loud sound of mikes can be very unnerving for all in the vicinity who have a stake in not getting so disturbed.
There are designated areas for commercial and industrial work. The zoning is particularly aimed at extending to people the facility of living in a peaceful environment. But commercial and industrial activities have made deep inroads in almost every residential area of Dhaka city . Workshops, car repairing garages, welding shops, metal works, etc., now exist side by side with residential homes . The sounds generated in these enterprises from clanging, banging and whirring, are experienced to be awful by the people who are dwelling in such places. But they find no deliverance in sight. Some have permanent residences there and cannot afford to move to relatively better locations.
The picture above is not only one of Dhaka city. It is a representative one for the whole country including all the major cities and townships including also some of the once serene rural areas. Noise in different forms is playing havoc to the quality of life all over the country. But actions to prevent the same are shockingly non existent. The other irony is that many people who otherwise feel annoyed by the sounds, are unaware of what bad effects these can have on their health.
Traffic police recently declared a ban on using of horns in some busy roads of Dhaka as a step against noise pollution. They say that they have plans to extend it to other parts of the city. But the step is more symbolic and devoid of practical value. It is impossible for engine operated vehicles to make their way through the jungle of rickshaws that crowd the roads without paying any heed to rules of moving in a single file. The rickshaws get in the way of the faster automotive vehicles and create traffic snarls and the vehicle drivers have recourse to no other means but to honk at the rickshawpullers to move in a more disciplined manner and get out of the way. Thus, honking on the roads is a necessity and stopping it will create greater traffic mess while contributing only marginally against noise pollution.
What is required is not only a flash in the pan like activity such as asking motorists not to use their horns, but a comprehensive legislation against noise pollution that would categorise it squarely as an offence. More significantly, such an act must address the areas where human hearing and health are most affected by excessive sounds and regulate them and not stunts like preventing the use of horns by drivers. The act must prohibit the use of mikes, loudspeakers and noise making activities in residential areas. The same may be resorted to for a reasonable period of time and that too after taking permission from the people who are to be effected. The law to be made should also call for removal of all noise making enterprises from residential areas. Finally, the law must not only be stated but its all-out enforcement will have to be attempted. Nothing short can truly save tormented people from the threat of noise pollution.
The government makes a move in some cases to address issues of significance to people. But then it drags its feet. There is no other way to explain the inexcusable lethargy in pushing through a piece of legislation considered as vital from the standpoint of public health to which the government seemed responsive, made an initiative to create it and then for no good reason has been sitting on it.
The government decided two years ago that it would make laws to control noise pollution. Accordingly, the draft of an act was prepared that recommended Taka 10,000 as fine and maximum six months of imprisonment for producing noise higher than the permissible limits. But for unknown reasons the act in draft form has not progressed since then. Unlike in other areas, there are probably no powerful and influential vested interest groups who would want such a legislation frustrated . Why then, this foot dragging with this act which can be of great value to millions and millions of people who are progressively losing their hearing abilities from the rising noise pollution ?
The Society for Assistance of Hearing Impaired Children (SAHIC) conducted a year long survey at 21 spots to find out the impact of noise pollution on the residents of Dhaka city. The survey result showed that hearing ability of 76.9 per cent of the surveyed people was partly damaged from continuous noise pollution. A private university and a non governmental organisation jointly surveyed 20 spots in Dhaka city recently that included residential areas and ones with academic institutions and hospitals where the least noises are desirable. In these areas, sound levels should be within 45 decibels but the survey found average sound level 75 decibels near Oxford International School in Dhanmondi, 86 decibels near Birdem hospital and 76 decibels near Viqarunnessa Noon School and College . In what should be a purely residential area at Kylanpur, the survey found the average sound level at 80 decibels. The average sound level in other residential areas comes near to this level or even surpasses it in some cases.
Noise pollution not only leads to gradual hearing loss. It also creates medical conditions such as high blood pressure, palpitation, loss of concentration, headache, irritability, insomnia and other forms of physical and mental sicknesses. Thus, it is high time to take the proposed noise pollution act out of the freezer and adopt and enforce it at the fastest.
THE peace and quiet of a residential area in some parts of Dhaka and many other urban areas is shattered in the early morning with the arrival of a vendor with a push-cart fitted with a loudspeaker. The man probably sells quack medicines and draws customers by playing recorded publicities about the value and potency of his medicines in high volume through the loudspeaker. But the big noise in shrilly tones he makes is enough to completely destroy the sense of calm one looks forward to enjoying in the morning hours.
A student is preparing for the vital school leaving final exam. Suddenly, his or her concentration is undone by the loud sound of a mike. The miking again could be the doing of a vendor or anybody with the flimsiest purpose. Similarly, mikes are used in the most carefree manner in residential areas during weddings, any type of cultural and religious functions. Hindi songs in high volumes are intermittently played on some mikes with the least concern about the effect of the same on people a round who do not wish to get their eardrums beaten with the noise from such songs and music for long hours. Some peers (holymen) use mikes in the same fashion to sermonise their followers at congregations called urs or waz mehfils. But the loud sound of mikes can be very unnerving for all in the vicinity who have a stake in not getting so disturbed.
There are designated areas for commercial and industrial work. The zoning is particularly aimed at extending to people the facility of living in a peaceful environment. But commercial and industrial activities have made deep inroads in almost every residential area of Dhaka city . Workshops, car repairing garages, welding shops, metal works, etc., now exist side by side with residential homes . The sounds generated in these enterprises from clanging, banging and whirring, are experienced to be awful by the people who are dwelling in such places. But they find no deliverance in sight. Some have permanent residences there and cannot afford to move to relatively better locations.
The picture above is not only one of Dhaka city. It is a representative one for the whole country including all the major cities and townships including also some of the once serene rural areas. Noise in different forms is playing havoc to the quality of life all over the country. But actions to prevent the same are shockingly non existent. The other irony is that many people who otherwise feel annoyed by the sounds, are unaware of what bad effects these can have on their health.
Traffic police recently declared a ban on using of horns in some busy roads of Dhaka as a step against noise pollution. They say that they have plans to extend it to other parts of the city. But the step is more symbolic and devoid of practical value. It is impossible for engine operated vehicles to make their way through the jungle of rickshaws that crowd the roads without paying any heed to rules of moving in a single file. The rickshaws get in the way of the faster automotive vehicles and create traffic snarls and the vehicle drivers have recourse to no other means but to honk at the rickshawpullers to move in a more disciplined manner and get out of the way. Thus, honking on the roads is a necessity and stopping it will create greater traffic mess while contributing only marginally against noise pollution.
What is required is not only a flash in the pan like activity such as asking motorists not to use their horns, but a comprehensive legislation against noise pollution that would categorise it squarely as an offence. More significantly, such an act must address the areas where human hearing and health are most affected by excessive sounds and regulate them and not stunts like preventing the use of horns by drivers. The act must prohibit the use of mikes, loudspeakers and noise making activities in residential areas. The same may be resorted to for a reasonable period of time and that too after taking permission from the people who are to be effected. The law to be made should also call for removal of all noise making enterprises from residential areas. Finally, the law must not only be stated but its all-out enforcement will have to be attempted. Nothing short can truly save tormented people from the threat of noise pollution.
The government makes a move in some cases to address issues of significance to people. But then it drags its feet. There is no other way to explain the inexcusable lethargy in pushing through a piece of legislation considered as vital from the standpoint of public health to which the government seemed responsive, made an initiative to create it and then for no good reason has been sitting on it.
The government decided two years ago that it would make laws to control noise pollution. Accordingly, the draft of an act was prepared that recommended Taka 10,000 as fine and maximum six months of imprisonment for producing noise higher than the permissible limits. But for unknown reasons the act in draft form has not progressed since then. Unlike in other areas, there are probably no powerful and influential vested interest groups who would want such a legislation frustrated . Why then, this foot dragging with this act which can be of great value to millions and millions of people who are progressively losing their hearing abilities from the rising noise pollution ?
The Society for Assistance of Hearing Impaired Children (SAHIC) conducted a year long survey at 21 spots to find out the impact of noise pollution on the residents of Dhaka city. The survey result showed that hearing ability of 76.9 per cent of the surveyed people was partly damaged from continuous noise pollution. A private university and a non governmental organisation jointly surveyed 20 spots in Dhaka city recently that included residential areas and ones with academic institutions and hospitals where the least noises are desirable. In these areas, sound levels should be within 45 decibels but the survey found average sound level 75 decibels near Oxford International School in Dhanmondi, 86 decibels near Birdem hospital and 76 decibels near Viqarunnessa Noon School and College . In what should be a purely residential area at Kylanpur, the survey found the average sound level at 80 decibels. The average sound level in other residential areas comes near to this level or even surpasses it in some cases.
Noise pollution not only leads to gradual hearing loss. It also creates medical conditions such as high blood pressure, palpitation, loss of concentration, headache, irritability, insomnia and other forms of physical and mental sicknesses. Thus, it is high time to take the proposed noise pollution act out of the freezer and adopt and enforce it at the fastest.