Thank you for highlighting a nuisance that most of us suffer in silence

I wish to thank the Sunday Times and journalists Tharushi Weerasinghe and Renishka Fernando for highlighting an issue that affects numerous households in urbanized and residential areas - noise pollution, in the article, ‘It’s complicated: Sri Lanka’s relationship with loudspeakers’ published on November 28. In my view articles like this must go beyond occasional publication in the newspaper to facilitate eradicating this public nuisance which people suffer silently. As quite rightly pointed out, communities are afraid to speak up about this issue.

It would be a great service if the print and electronic media came to the fore to spread public opinion and prod the relevant bodies such as the Central Enviromental Authority, the Municipal Councils, Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas, the Police and the Grama Sevakas to take action.

Even though the legal framework exists through the Noise Control Act 1996 and its amendments promulgated under the National Environmental Act, they are of little use if the authorities do not take action against noise polluting offenders.

The 1981/2888999 hotlines of the CEA, the different types of units established in the local authorities do not serve the purpose and are little more than a drain on taxpayers’ money. We have 8000 such elected local government personnel and when I brought the issue to the notice of one such representative in my area, I was told the Local Government is not sensitive enough to help households like mine. This is a sad state of affairs. There needs to be a start somewhere and this is where the media could be a great facilitator.

You have also highlighted that the local Police have limited resources to gauge the decibel levels. They should connect with the Industrial

Technological Institute which has a unit for the Assessment of Industrial Pollution; they haves the technical know-how and resources to assess the noise and vibration of any given environment, of course for a fee.

I am a senior citizen and lately have been exposed to severe noise pollution and diffusion of highly flammable chemical vapour from a neighbouring garage which starts its operations at 7 a.m. and goes on until 8 p.m., seven days of the week. After retirement, I was re-employed and working from home but this has now been denied to me as it is impossible to work online with the unbearable noise.

In the current context there are thousands of households where people are working from home and schoolchildren have to undertake a large proportion of their studies too online. It is high time we as a community show greater sensitivity to this issue which also includes the noise emanating from places of religious worship.

“Good people do not need laws to tell them how to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws’. Currently how the regulations are applied in my area of residence is leaning towards benefiting those who find a way to break the laws.

Priyantha Fernando

Moratuwa