The sound of nuisance: Act now and save us from becoming deaf

Appropos letters in the Sunday Times “Making a noise: Vendors are comparatively innocent” by Irritated Citizen and “Let the sound of peace and solace prevail” by Concerned Buddhist, Rajagiriya, I am a real victim of blaring sounds through loud speakers from a Buddhist temple which is in front of our house on each and every holiday – Poya, Saturday and Sunday – thus denying me the opportunity to have a peaceful day after working hard on the week-days.

On a Poya day, we are forced to get up at 5 in the morning and then suffer the nuisance of blaring sound from the temple for almost the whole day upto about 9 – 10 p.m. The consequences of this noise is that we are unable to answer a phone call, watch TV, listen to music, read a newspaper and even take a small nap, which I consider to be cruelty to humanity. It is very pathetic that the Buddhist monks who preach “Siyalu satywayo niduk wewa. Nirogi wewa” (Let all human beings be happy and healthy), openly breach their preaching by way of this noise pollution towards their neighbours whatever religion they may belong to.

One wonders if laws such as Public Nuisance Ordinance and environmental pollution do not apply to these temples and whether there are any avenues for redress to the suffering public on account of these encroachments into their private lives, on the pretext of religious freedom.

Although, the BBS made a hue and cry about the Call for Prayers from mosques some time back, as a person who has lived in the Middle East for quite a considerable time, I can safely say that such calls in those countries and in this country do not amount to such disturbances as they are short lived at a time unlike the sounds blared through loud speakers by the Buddhist temples in the vicinity lasting a full day. In actual fact most of what is blared through are CDs containing viridu, kavi Bana, patriotic songs etc. and not much of real Bana anyway.

I wonder why can’t these temples be considerate enough to follow the practices of other religions such as Christianity, Hinduism etc. and confine their preachings to those attending their services inside the places of worship rather than disturb the neighbourhood.

As Brig. Neville Fernando mentioned in his letter “Police deaf to blaring bus horns”; noise pollution is injurious to health and a three second exposure to loud noise could cause severe damage to the cochlear of the human ear.

So, isn’t it time that some authority came down hard on these offending temples and save the public from becoming deaf – sooner than later. Calistus Jayatileke Panadura