Cellphone tower keeps Gonubie awake
A noisy cellphone tower in an East London churchyard has residents up in arms.
Their complaints have not fallen on deaf ears, however, as the contractor who installed the tower has agreed to take action to reduce the noise pollution.
Since it was put up at the Old Apostolic Church in Fifth Avenue, Gonubie, by Atlas Towers in November, residents living near the church have complained about the noise emitted by the tower, which they likened to “the drone of a truck” and which continues all day and night.
Some are worried about other health implications as well.
Stefan van Heerden, the construction manager at Atlas Towers, said he visited the site to assess the situation this week.
His inspection revealed that old-fashioned equipment is being used to cool the device, and it is the fans that are responsible for the noise.
“We are in the process of changing the equipment as we speak,” Van Heerden said.
“Unfortunately it is a procurement process issue so I’m waiting for the equipment.
“It could take about a month before I get it but I just want to assure the residents that we are working on it.”
In the meantime Kathy Wiehahn, who lives next door to the church, said her bedroom is located directly opposite the tower, making sleep close to impossible on most nights.
According to Wiehahn, there was once a power outage in the area, meaning the tower’s generator kicked in.
Wiehahn said they could barely think from the noise.
“And then there was a day that the tower stopped working and some workers came to attend to it. They left the spotlight on and this bright light shone into my bedroom the entire night. I had to try to get hold of someone from the church to call someone to switch it off,” she said.
“We bought a house in Gonubie because we wanted to be near the ocean and we used to be able to hear the waves from here, but not any more.
“All we hear now is the sound of that tower.”
Dylan Allen, who lives across the street from the church, said although his bedroom was at the back of his house he and his wife could still hear the noise at night.
Allen said his biggest fear was how the tower was affecting their health.
“Just look at the increase of cancer these days.
“It’s scary. When we research cellphone towers we read that the waves emitted by these towers cause cancer, and we are worried about that,” he said.
Residents claim the tower was installed without proper consultation. However, attempts to get comment from the church were unsuccessful.
When the Dispatch called the head office situated in Port Elizabeth we were told that the relevant person to speak to was on leave.
When contacted for comment, ward 29 councillor Andries Swart said he was unaware of the tower as no resident had contacted him about it. He explained that before such a structure is constructed, the church would have had to first get approval from the neighbours and from Buffalo City Metro.
BCM spokesman Samkelo Nwenya said applications of this kind were submitted to the metro and all departments involved in the plan’s approval process visited the site to comment on whether the application should be supported or not. “BCM did approve the paperwork, which includes the environmental impact assessment (EIA) which was done by the provincial department of environmental affairs,” he said, adding the situation on the ground, however, called for a review. Community members would have to be brought together to air their grievances so that “we can go forward in a way in which everyone benefits,” he added.