Sound pollution has become much more than a nuisance in this sprawling Dhaka city as the authorities concerned are asleep at the wheel.
“Something needs to be done, not just about honking horns, it’s also about brick-crushing machines …it starts just after 7 am, even on weekends, and the cacophony goes on even after the sunset,” says Saima Hossain, a house owner in the city’s Moghbazar area.
Experts mainly blame four factors — honking of horns by motorists, construction work using brick crushers and mixing machines, use of heavy, noisy equipment in factories and loudspeakers — for the worsening noise pollution in and around the city.
A survey, carried out by Department of Environment (DoE) in the mega city from April to May 2012, said the sound level in the capital was beyond the permissible limit in summer last year. It was more than double the limit in some cases.
According to physicians, the noise pollution causes blood pressure, usually high pressure, heart diseases and serious harm to the ear, including deafening.
Contacted, Sirajul Islam Mollah, member of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) air and sound pollution prevention committee, said the sound pollution law does not allow installation and use of building construction equipment, including brick crushing and concrete mixing machines and piling ones within a 500-meter radius of a residential area or dwelling houses where people live. “But, the law is hardly followed by the developers during construction works in the city.”
Similarly, the Noise Pollution (Control) Rules-2006 prohibits honking horns by motorists in a 100-metre radius of hospitals, educational institutes and offices. The rules also make taking prior permission for using loudspeakers in any areas of the city mandatory.
DoE Director (enforcement) Munir Chowdhury told UNB that there is a provision in the Environment Protection Law to deploy mobile courts to curb sound pollution.
He said a clause of the law allows slapping a fine of Tk 5,000 on the first time flouter, two months` imprisonment along with Tk 10,000 fine for the second time flouter while the clause 7 of the law stipulates that an offender can be fined Tk 10,000 to Tk 700,000.
He said the DoE-run mobile courts realised over Tk 1 crore in fine from the flouters of the law in the last two years ending December 1, 2012.
Another DoE director Mansur Alam, when contacted, admitted that there are specific laws in the country to check noise pollution but people are least bothered about the laws.
He, however, said although the enforcement is few and far between, the DoE is conducting drives against such offences in different cities, including the capital.
Alam said one of the clauses prohibits nighttime use of construction machines and equipment, but the contractors and developers do not care about that. “Another clause makes setting up high boundary wall around construction site and erecting steel overhead covering on it mandatory but usually the developers do not comply with the rule,” he said.
Echoing him Mansur Alam, BAPA general secretary Abdul Matin said the law is in place but is hardly practiced.
He said the developers are constructing buildings here and there flouting the DoE rules.
“They’re using construction equipment at their sweet will anywhere and all the time, never caring for the sufferings they have been inflicting on the city dwellers,” he alleged.
The relevant regulatory body of the government is not performing its duty properly, he further alleged.
Rajdhani Unnyan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and the DoE need to be fully equipped and empowered to deal with noise pollution strongly, Alam added.
He also stressed the importance of carrying out a campaign among people to raise the awareness level of people against noise pollution.
Source: UNBConnect
