Job Osazuwa
A young man who has lived all his life in the South East, Ebuka Chidibere, just got a job in a new generation bank in Lagos, and at first his joy knew no bounds.
But on his second day in the state, he began to feel uncomfortable with happenings around him. On a certain Friday, which seemed to be an introduction to the environmental nuisance ahead, he was jolted from deep sleep at about 1am. As if he was directly being targeted, a loud speaker was blaring some music from a pub sited a few houses away. He cursed under his breath as he struggled for hours to get back to sleep to no avail.
Many people in major cities across Nigeria are now finding it extremely difficult to cope with the drastic increase in noise pollution. In some areas, it is unbearable to the inhabitants. Unwanted and objectionable sound or excessive noise is capable of harming the balance of human life.
In Lagos, it is no exaggeration that noise pollution has become commonplace. Preachers are everywhere. In many places in the city, it is almost certain to begin the day with preaching on the street with a megaphone. The noise, when combined with other human and vehicular activities, could be chaotic. And the blast from some speakers could be deafening.
The seeming siege happens virtually every day of the week. Without considering those who are not part of the programme or belief, the noise comes from daily church programmes, echoes from the mosque, loud music from club houses and more. If anyone’s peace gets punctured in the process, it is none of their business.
The rising number of open-air pubs, bars and night spots in residential neighbourhoods, who turn on their loudspeakers to the highest volumes, has become a source for national concern in recent times. Daily Sun gathered that many of these joints are manned by armed security personnel who keep watch of their businesses at the expense of neighbours whose sleep are persistently distorted.
It is obvious that Nigerians are living in a noise-polluted environment. This pollution has been linked to a number of ailments such as depression, aggressiveness, weak concentration and hearing defects.
Perturbed by this development, health experts have said that one of the attendant effects of this man-made pollution is noise-induced hearing impairment. Medics also warned that combined sources of noise pollution would lead to a combination of adverse effects such as impaired hearing, sleep disorder, cardiovascular disturbances, interference at work, school, and home, spontaneous anger, emotional trauma, among others.
Noisy areas impede concentra¬tion and may cause accidents. Noise is generated from loud music from neighbours, generators and others. It is said that noise, which is measured with audio-metre in decibels, becomes abnormal and dangerous for people whose daily exposures to noise exceed 85 decibels.
Vulnerable groups include patients with various diseases in homes or hospitals, or those who are rehabilitating from injuries or diseases, the blind, the hearing impaired, foetuses, infants and young children, and the elderly. This vulnerability to noise may be an age-related sensitivity but may also be based on behaviour or an inability of the very young to remove themselves from a noxious source.
The tradition in most clubs is for the operators to turn on the volume of their speakers to the highest decibels in the name of attracting customers. Every day of the week, music blaring from the bar lasts till midnight or beyond.
The noise disrupts the comfort of people, constituting more harm to children and the elderly, who, according to experts, are the most vulnerable.
According to experts, uncontrolled noise could trigger depression, mental disorder and other psychological concerns among balanced people. Some surveys have confirmed that hearing deformities are not as predominant in low-density areas across Nigeria when compared to high-density neighbourhoods.
A resident at Baba, a big club house near Baba Ijebu Bus Stop in Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos, Timothy Olawale described the situation as frustrating.
“They don’t care whether you sleep or not. It is giving us health challenges. Sometimes I wonder whether we are normal in this part of the world. It baffles me why any reasonable government will not intervene in our plight. One will also wonder how the club house got the approval in the first place.
“I can now understand why many people easily run mad or why people develop different illnesses. Most times, we can’t even receive telephone calls in our own apartments when their music is on. That shows how bad the situation is,” he lamented.
Several studies have shown that noise pollu¬tion could be life threatening. They also described it as a risk factor in sleep disturbance, cardiovascu¬lar dysfunctions, speech interference and mental distortion. Other medical workers submitted that high level noise from neighbourhoods could re-sult in intolerable reactions and negative impact on job satisfaction and performance.
The process of hearing impairment as report¬ed may be gradual, but it can eventually result in the destruction of the hair cells in the ear.
“Apart from high noise causing acoustic trauma, it can cause a temporary or permanent shift in the hearing threshold. Such impair¬ment may result in profound or total deafness,” experts maintained.
There are few or poorly enforced noise-pollution control laws in many parts of Nigeria. In every part of the nation and within the neighbourhoods, people exposed to noise pollution are hardly aware of the health risks of persistent noise pollution.
Noise might also have an effect on unborn babies and newborns. A research done in Norway has suggested that ex¬posure to noise during pregnancy may increase the risk of high-frequency hearing loss in the newborn, shortened gestation, prematurity, and intrauterine growth retardation.
Many concerned Nigerians have called on the government to ensure that the noise level is strictly adhered to and defaulting establishments might be shut. They believe that this it is better to prevent noise due to its health hazards.
Public health experts have said that the increasing noise pollution as negligence and failure to recognise the agents that cause disease. They added that even when causes are recognized, the response is usually reluctant, slow, and often inadequate.
A family health physician, Edward Oreoluwa, who is based in Lagos, linked consistent and acute noise pollution to possible elevation in the blood pressure. He explained that such a noise activates nervous and hormonal responses, leading to temporary increase in blood pressure.
He said that it could also impair the ability to enjoy one’s property and leisure time and increases the frequency of antisocial behaviour.
He warned that noisy activities would result in gradual loss of hearing, and might even deteriorate and result in permanent deafness over time.
On mitigating the effects of noise pollution, he stated that noise could be controlled at the source by damping, reducing or enclosing the vibration surface, especially at industrial environment.
Recently, the Lagos State Government (LASG) directed operators of hotels, leisure homes and religious centres shut down due to noise pollution to obtain guarantee from residents’ associations before they could be re-opened.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello, announced that the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) has been mandated to apply the full weight of the law in this area.
Bello vowed that on a continuous basis, LASEPA officials would be going round such centres/homes and anyone found to have exceeded the approved level of sound output would be closed down and the appropriate sanctions applied.
The commissioner noted that his office had been inundated with complaints and petitions from many residents and residents’ associations about the obnoxious noise levels of many of the leisure centres and religious homes.
“It was also discovered that many of such leisure centres/religious homes, night clubs, after being reopened by the state government usually go back to the same noise pollution for which they were earlier axed. This action prompted the involvement of the residents’ associations.
“The affected leisure centres should procure sound-proof equipment, which would reduce the sound that goes out when such leisure or religious homes are engaging in business,” Bello said.
He said that the state government would not allow any business concern to put the wellbeing of the residents at peril, simply because it wanted to operate or be in business.
At the end of the operation, the government closed down eight worship centres across the state for contravening environmental pollution regulations.
The General Manager of LASEPA, Dr Dolapo Fasawe, who led the exercise, said that the facilities were shut to save the people from a health crisis that might arise from the activities of the centres. He said that there would be no hiding place for any religious organisation which failed to operate within the ambit of the law, regardless of their faith.
Fasawe said that mutual respect of views, culture and religion, which the annual tolerance day celebration symbolised, must be adhered to by all residents to foster peace. She said that religious organisations were supposed to demonstrate good conduct, tolerance, brotherliness and good neighbourliness.
“Those recalcitrant organisations or worship centres known to be disturbing the peace of Lagos residents will face the full wrath of the law. In as much as the state government is positively disposed to the peaceful conduct of religion of choice by its citizens, it does not condone infringements on the rights of other residents in the name of religious activities.
But of great concern to the state government is the need for religious activities to be conducted in a manner that worshippers will not infringe on others’ rights,’’ Fasawe said.
She added that the illegal and unauthorised conversion of residential property into religious uses without recourse to the wellbeing of others and the state environment law was bad.
Fasawe explained that for the sealed facilities to be reopened, the leaders of those organisations must reach an agreement of compliance with the state and also satisfy other necessary conditions as might be prescribed by LASEPA.