Leadnaija
Noise pollution is an irritant. In this piece, OKECHUKWU ONUEGBU takes a look at its abuse in Anambra state and steps being taken to address the menace.
Just recently, Gov Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state in a viral video spotted a young man preaching at an open market in Ochanja using a loudspeaker and cautioned him against noise pollution saying, “If you want to preach, go to a church. Those who want to listen would come to you; you cannot force people in the market to hear your message.
This is a market place; not a church. You are violating the law. You cannot take over a public space and turn it into a church; otherwise, you will be charged for using this space and pay N500,000 because we cannot allow this.
We have banned the use of loudspeakers in markets due to noise pollution because they affects people’s eardrums. You cannot force people to listen to your preaching. We are cracking down on fake pastors and prophets in Anambra,” he stated.
Anambra State anti-noise Law
The governor was referring to the Anambra State Public Health Law (2006) which prohibits excessive noise in public places. The law, among other things, prohibited noise that can disturb public peace and outlines penalties against its violations as individuals caught violating it would pay fines up to ₦500,000.
Although, the governor’s order attracted criticism from some religious leaders who saw it as an attack, the statement was actually aimed at mitigating the effect of climate change which is adversely affecting the world.
Noise pollution being a disruptive action has grievous impacts on humans and animals. A report on National Geographic Institute, an online data site, says that millions of people are feeling the bitter impact daily.
According to the institute, “Children who live near noisy airports or streets have been found to suffer from stress and other problems such as impairments in memory, attention level and reading skill.”
It could be determined by amounts of sound emitting from animate and inaninate, including objects like speakers or sound system, musicals, metals, gongs, band, horns from vehicles and others.
In Nigeria, everywhere is almost noisy. If not from people discussing, it would be power generating sets, music, vehicles on the streets, mobile drugs and other hawkers, people responding to phone calls or other issues.
Experts have argued that noise is every unwanted sound, discussions or disruptions and could be measured in decibels ranging from 20 to 30 decibels, 120 decibels and 120 to 140 decibels. At 85 decibels, sounds are considered to be dangerous and harmful to the body. Sound sources that exceed this threshold could induce hearing loss, heart diseases, stress disturbances, high blood pressures and other cardiovascular disorders.
A mental health expert and psychologist, Professor Arline Bronzaft described noise as an environment pollutant, unwanted, intrusive and disturbing. Like other researchers, she believes that its impacts on mental health included anxiety, sleep disturbances and depression.
“Well, let me just say quiet enhances health. I didn’t say silence because I still want to hear birds. I still want to hear the air blowing and I still want to hear the babbling of young children,” she stated.
An Awka-based social commentator and public relations expert, Uche Osunkwo, argued that noise has ugly disorganising spiritual, physical and psychological dimensions, adding that one is a product of our traditional milieu while the other comes from unnatural amplifying effects of modern productions.
Who are impacted most by noise?
Noise pollution affects everyone. In fact, Bronzaft posited that, “Noise doesn’t discriminate. It can go everywhere. You never know in your quiet community that a facility may be built next to you.”
Even pregnant women exposed to such excessive noise face risks of fetal development, while also distrusting learning and cognitive abilities in children, especially in schools located near noisy areas.
The director of planning, research, and strategy, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Chinedu Okwelogu, believed that there should be urgent steps to regulate noise pollution in Nigeria because it affects pupils and students learning, mind sports professionals, health practitioners and others.
“Quiet is calming to the nerves, the mind and body. Pupils and students in school would be able to focus on their studies without interruption of their thought processes. The mind of scrabble, chess and draughts players would be able to fine-tune their winning strategies. Ecclesiastics will be enabled to concentrate on how best to tackle the more problematic societal ills.
Government workers would labour in environments that are conduce to them. Health workers and patients would find that the serenity of the hospital environment is so salutary that recovery rates triple and mortality rates due to stress would decline,” he added.
To mitigate its excesses and impacts, legislations come to play. In Nigeria, some of the existing legal regulations against noise pollution are National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Act of 2007 and the National Environmental Noise Standards and Control Regulations of 2009.
Both stipulate penalties against certain levels of noise ranging from fines of ₦5,000 daily for individuals to ₦500,000 for corporate bodies as well as imprisonment for offenders.
The government also provided for noise control via urban planning through separation of noise-sensitive areas from residential homes. This includes school buildings, hospitals and residential zones away from high-noise impact zones like industrial areas and markets.
Unfortunately, religious adherents, hawkers of drugs and others are flooding these areas with their megaphones and other mobile devices to disrupt the airwaves. There are also those who mounted their megaphones and loudspeakers for preaching atop religious houses.
What could be responsible?
A climate change mitigation expert, Comrade Alfred Ajayi attributed this to lack of public awareness on existing laws and regulations in Nigeria. “There is a need for government to make laws that would be all- encompassing in addressing all kinds of noise pollution. There is noise at homes, offices, streets, motor parks and others. The law placing bans on noise should be popularised.
Nigeria has several things governed by law but people are not aware. It is true that ignorance of the law is not an excuse, but a good percentage of Nigerians run foul of laws because of ignorance. The government should not wait until people fall victims of this before they speak. The provisions should be made available to all in simple terms.
“Government should also embark on sensitisation and enlightenment campaign with various stakeholders to reach a compromise for the laws to perfectly work,” he noted.
Okwelogu, who also believed that ignorance is responsible for non-compliance to existing regulations on noise pollution added, “ You cannot comply with a law whose existence you are unaware of.
The second cause is the difficulty inherent in breaking an already established habit. When people have been born into a noisy environment and grown up in that environment, it is natural for them to resist changes.
“Thirdly, there is the false sense of possession of fundamental human rights under the constitution that confers on the presumed possessor the spurious right to be as loud as they want in the discharge of their daily doings, forgetting that where one individual’s rights end is where another individual’s rights begin.”
Likely solution(s)
Osunkwo believed no right-thinking person would not support any reasonable project to control noise pollution but it must be holistic and a collaborative efforts of the citizens.
“Apart from people who exploit noise for diverse objectives and those who have psychological addiction to it, a lot of people disdain its serious polluting effects, even as they often feel discomforted by it.
“So, as much as the need for control is not in doubt, care should be taken to carry the people along in the novel action against a nuisance they have been living with. As real action is being taken against obvious harmful cases of noise production, education, enlightenment and sensitisation strategies should be seriously emphasized on, through which the people’s ignorance of its harm could be addressed,” he stated.
On his part, Okwelogu called for strengthening of law enforcement agents and reformation starting from parents before coming to the public.
“The best social reformation takes place in the home, so parents who have imbibed the gospel of the war against noise pollution should assign themselves the task of sensitising and mobilising their children towards compliance right there at home.
“State and local government authorities should immediately embark on emplacing warning signposts with written fines for violation in public areas, prohibiting blaring of car horns any how.
“The police or equivalent traffic authority should be authorised to enforce compliance with those warnings with a proper remittance system of the fines. Federal and state public enlightenment outfits should devise elaborate programmes implementable throughout the state by which all rural and urban populaces will be fully aware of the law.”Continue..
