Lagos State Government, Tuesday, placed a ban on the use of sound amplifiers, microphone and other formmof sound systems at motor garages and parks across the aimed at curtailing noise pollution as well as ensure noiseless, healthy environment.
The Special Adviser to Governor on Transportation, Oluwatoyin Fayinka, announced this yesterday, at a joint-press briefing organised by the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment through the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA and the Ministry of Transportation, at Alausa, Lagos.
Fayinka, said the measure became necessary following series of public complaints and attendant health hazards pose to residents.
He said government has identified areas where the act is prevalent and vowed to to enforce the rules to the latter.
Speaking on the penalty, Fayinka said that any park that flouts the directive would be shut while the transporters and managers of the parks would be dealth with in accordance with the law.
“Noise pollution is the major leading public complaints received at the Agency, ranging from the transport sector, religious, commercial and entertainment industry, domestic animals, and power generators among others.
“The most widely being the social media handles of the Agency and its website,” he said.
The General Manager of LASEPA, Dr Dolapo Fasawe, said from Wednesday (today) it is illegal for any motor park in Lagos to make use use of sound amplifiers and other noise-making devices while calling on passengers, saying that that any park found doing so would face the wrath of the law.
She said that section 177 of the Lagos State Environmental Management and Protection Law 2017 prohibits the use of public address system or loudspeaker to solicit for passengers or advertise the sale of goods at parks, markets and public places.
Fasawe, said there is a specified amount of decibel of noise required in the day time and night, adding that anyone who flouts the new directive would be severely sanctioned.
The Consultant expert in the noiseless Lagos Project, Professor Ade Owolawi, said that it was unfortunate most Nigerians are suffering from hearing impairments due to excessive exposure to noise pollution, adding that most transporters are have hearing issues due to their exposure to noise pollution at their motor parks.
Owolawi, who said that no fewer than 8.5 million Nigerians are suffering from hearing impairments, stressed that study conducted at the motor parks showed that 17 per cent of the people working in the parks are suffering from hearing impairments as a result of the noise pollution.
He described the rate at which the figure of affected Nigerians was increasing as alarming, calling for government’s intervention toward addressing the situation.
Owolawi added that despite the fact that most of the people are the motor parks are suffering from hearing, they are fond of using a very loud horn, saying that most of them engage in the practice unknowingly without recourse to harmful effects of the practice on their health.
