RUCCI
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- Oct 6, 2011
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The minister of State in the Vice President's Office (Environment), Dr Binilith Mahenge, during an interview yesterday.
The government is working on putting an end to noise pollution--which has reportedly exposed residents of Dar es Salaam and other cities to distress and physical and mental health risks.
Environment Minister Binilith Mahenge told The Citizen on Saturday that the problem has risen to unprecedented levels and his office can no longer tolerate the nuisance. Last Sunday, this paper wrote on the suffering of city residents brought about by loud and pounding music in bars, shops, cars, dance halls, and live promotional road shows.
Our investigation indicated that mushrooming churches in residential areas, which use powerful public address systems during day and night prayers, have become a major source of distress for urbanites.
Tanzania does not have regulations to check noise and vibration levels, making it virtually impossible to enforce the law. "I have read the story in The Citizen with great concern," Dr Mahenge said in his office. "We have decided to launch a massive intervention to stop noise pollution even before the regulations are out."
The National Environment Management Council (NEMC) and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) came up with regulations to ensure smooth implementation of the environment law some years back but they have yet to be released a decade after the National Environment Act of 2004 came into being.
Dr Mahenge vowed yesterday that he would intervene and enforce the law even in the absence of the regulations lest the problem gets out of hand. He added: "For the time being, we are going to do all that is necessary, including applying existing laws and other internationally accepted methods to end this problem."
Frustrated city residents have accused the authorities of either ignoring the problem or doing little to end the menace. Noise pollution disrupts learning in schools and disturbs patients in hospital and office workers in many parts of the city.
The Citizen on Saturday has established that the problem is not limited to Dar es Salaam. Reports from Mwanza, Iringa, Musoma, Tabora and Morogoro suggest that residents have a difficult time coming to terms with the problem.
They accuse owners of bars, dance halls and nightclubs in residential areas of breaking the law--and getting away with it.
NEMC's Director for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, Mr Robert Ntakamulenga, told The Citizen on Saturday that the agency was doing its best to address the problem, with little success. "We are aware of the magnitude of the problem," he said. "But we can't stop it because specific regulations to check noise levels have yet to be released."
The regulations designed to check sound and vibration levels specify the role of NEMC, local government authorities and citizens in dealing with noise pollution.
The law also sets maximum volume in churches, mosques, nightclubs and bars, public rallies, industrial zones and even promotional road shows.
Source: The Citizen
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Mi...tion/-/1840392/2498686/-/adwjrtz/-/index.html