Recent events seem to indicate that T&T is finally becoming serious about doing something to address the pernicious impact of noise pollution. Only this week, the Minister of Justice, Herbert Volney, acting on behalf of his constituents, went to court to object to the hosting of the very popular WASA fete in the St Joseph area. Thankfully, the intolerance of some people to having loud music disturb their sleep is being matched by an attempt by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) to take its mandate to control noise pollution in this twin-island nation seriously.
In the last month, the EMA has taken positive action to curb loud noise in residential areas. On January 13, the Environmental Police Unit of the EMA reacted quickly when it moved to investigate complaints by Woodbrook residents of the playing of loud music. The residents' ire was directed at a live broadcast by a television station, located in what is still a residential area, of loud music. After discussions with the management of the television station concerning the laws addressing noise pollution, the environmental police ordered that the performance be stopped.
Just a week before, the EMA served a notice of violation on the large warehouse shopping facility located at the corner of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway and Mausica Road in D'Abadie. The environmental inspectors found that the noise levels being emitted by the shopping facility exceeded the prescribed standards for both the day and the night and gave the foreign-owned company seven working days to provide information on what action it proposed to take to ensure compliance. And at the end of last year, following a concert put on by a radio station to mark its launch, the EMA issued a notice of violation to the manager of the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
The EMA discovered that the concert was being staged in the absence of the promoters applying for and receiving a variation permit issued under the Noise Pollution Control Rules prior to the holding of the event. As it did with the television station, the EMA could have ordered the organisers of the concert to pull the plug on the event, which would have led thousands of paying customers to experience massive disappointment and the promoters huge embarrassment and financial liability. In the wake of the decision by the EMA to issue the notice of violation to the manager of the stadium, the statement published by EMA Managing Director/CEO Dr Joth Singh is quite instructive. Dr Singh said: "Noise pollution is a now chronic problem in Trinidad and Tobago with the public crying out for action. It is incumbent upon operators of all facilities at which public functions of this kind are to be staged, to apply for a noise variation permit.
"The process is clearly outlined in rules we publicised in the past and will continue to make public. It is, however, evident there are those who choose to ignore this requirement. But this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated." Dr Singh is quite correct when he states that there are some people who will continue to ignore the requirement for the receipt of a noise variation permit before hosting a public event at which loud music is played. They will continue to ignore the EMA, and its perfectly reasonable requirements, until the authority takes action to stop an event at which thousands of paying customers are in attendance. As the Carnival season is upon us, it is incumbent on the EMA to show its seriousness in protecting the population from the scourge of noise pollution.
Fortunately, the EMA seems to have come to this conclusion on its own and the authority is to be congratulated for adopting a no-nonsense approach to violations of the noise pollution regulations. We salute Dr Singh's statement that the EMA plans "to step up our efforts to deal with the menace of noise pollution" and its call on all citizens to play their part in ensuring that the law is observed.