OPINION

Curbing noise pollution a doable agenda


Marksman | Published: May 02, 2018 22:08:11 | Updated: May 03, 2018 20:55:46


Curbing noise pollution a doable agenda

In terms of reducibility, noise pollution comes first followed by air,  surface and water  pollution-- in that order. This means all types of pollution are containable (being mostly  man-made and largely  due to agency failure), only that high decibel sound is more easily curbed than the remainder of the  environmental hazards(better call them menaces)!

The ease with  sound  pollution lies in lowering the  volume of noises.  No physical cleansing operation is  required  to be undertaken as in the case of other forms of contamination .  There is, however, a small habit-forming   problem --  as the decibel increases our auditory nerves get used to the higher level of  sound. And we wouldn't know about its dangerous flight before the damage is done.            

So, rather than boasting of our strong auditory nerves, we should be ashamed of  it. That we have allowed the noise levels in the capital city  to cross the critical threshold by one and a half to two times is a ringing indictment on our  failure to address an   approaching  existential disaster .This is  being renamed "noise terrorism", one that menaces   the  future of our progeny by stunting as you might imagine.

Thus, we saw on April 25 the observance of the International Noise Awareness Day themed "Let  noise pollution be curbed  for the proper growth of your child." The US-based Center for Hearing and Communication has been undertaking   a global awareness-building programme since 1996  on  high decibel sound. As part of the global initiative, a  children's rally was held on April 25  at Satmasjid Road in Dhanmondi  by 11 institutions, including Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon(BAPA), Stamford University Bangladesh, Work for Better Bangladesh (WBB) Trust.

With the children holding a placard reading "stop noise", the rally  had a hugely important demonstrative dimension to it: A Sound Pressure Level (SPL) Meter measured  noise intensity with the peak at 112 and the lowest at 82 decibel  points right before the eyes of the  children . In a  relatively quiet place like Dhanmondi it should have been 50 decibel. 

Whereas, according to standard  environmental stipulations, permissible sound levels between day and night times are  40 and 70 decibel respectively; yet,  at the following  five places the levels recorded by  WBB Trust early in  the current year    exceeded  by  150 -200 per cent: Farmgate 129.8 in the morning and 132.8 in the evening; Hazaribagh 129.6 and 132.8; Paltan intersection 111.6 and 125.7; Shahbagh 113.2 and 126.7; Shahjahanpur 127.8 and 109.3 respectively. In mixed areas, the tolerable  noise level was 50-60 decibels.

One  couldn't agree more with the views of  the president of the  function, architect Iqbal Habib. Said he, 'Environment directorate was  making law, amending and honing it; but at the field level when it came to getting a move against law breakers, nothing seemed to happen. The  expert  added an insightful remark: 'The law enforcing agency seemingly think  giving  security is their only  responsibility; but here you have "noise terrorism" against which they are not seen  taking a pro-active role.'

A raft of recommendations were issued from the rally. They include forbidding use of mike at meetings, rallies, social gatherings without permission; setting sound  standards for operating generators and other machines; implementing noise pollution rules, classification of areas as 'quiet, residential, commercial, mixed and industrial' and labelling them as such according to rules. Loud hooting should be punished with   driving licenses issued to tested, environment-literate   applicants.

I have just three  points to round up with: One, sustained hammering on the issue instead of one-off tokenism to stir up action on the ground ; two, realising it   as a continuing bane of unplanned and self-serving urbanisation and taking corrective measures; last but not least, treat the matter from civic, cultural and life-style (hiatus) points of view if we  mean to effect a real turn-around in the situation.

safarihi43@gmail.com

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