Waking up and heading to work every morning gives Ikechukwu Eze, a resident of a Lagos suburb, joy. But sleeping in his flat is a nightmare because of the combined noise from electric generating sets that hardly go off until early hours of the morning.
Even when the owners of the noisy generators manage to put them off or fuel finishes and silence the machines, the loud cries for prayers from places of worship take over.
Yet, music vendors sustain the noise at the bus stops with their loud speakers that almost make you deaf if you stay too long at the spot.
With all these disruptions, Eze’s productivity is declining as he hardly thinks well.
For Joseph Irabor, another resident, the number of generating sets at his veranda scares because of the level of pollution they cause whenever there is power outage.
He wishes that the electric distribution companies in Lagos could improve in their power supplies due to curb the incessant noise and air pollution that are contributing to several terminal ailments nowadays.
“There is no building now in Lagos that does not use a generating set. In some buildings such as such in face-me-I- face-you, there are over 10 generating sets, which are lined up at the veranda.
“In the building where I live, there are four generating sets for each of the four flats. An overwhelming noise comes from and an industrial generating set from another building very close to my window. It is my prayer every night that EEDC should supply light to those tenants so that I can have at least, three hours of undisturbed sleep,” he says.
For him, there is no escape from noise pollution in Lagos, and even at the various markets there is a myriad of generating sets on the roof of the shopping malls, which are used by the traders to power their shops.
A resident who preferred anonymity says, “I wonder if it is possible to reduce the volume of noise in the state because people are coming up with new innovations every day. Look at all these electronic billboards, they use generator to empower them. Most of them place it at a place behind the structure. Noise is synonymous with Lagos because of its disposition as a commercial nerve city”.
Aside generating sets, every day is chaotic for the average Lagos resident due to noise ranging from several sources airplanes, loudspeakers, traders, worship centres, hooting of vehicles to industrial machines.
Precious Bamidele, a trader at Ikotun, thinks that government is not doing enough to curb noise pollution, especially regulating the volume of sound from the vendors of music and video CDs and sound system in the state.
According to him, “In almost every market, car park and on the street, there are music and video shops with ear-splitting sounds from giant loudspeakers that crack the ear drums”.
At Oshodi, a trader says that the idea of people placing television sets on a stand with giant loudspeakers also generate noise.
When BD Sunday went across the metropolis, the story was the same in Ikeja, Yaba, Ajegunle, Surulere, Mushin, Amukoko, Ikotun, Mile Two, Iyana Ipaja and even in the elitist area of Lagos Island.
For them, perhaps it is the cheapest form of advertisement, but it is at the detriment of people’s peace and health.
The crazy thing about the noise pollution is also the way most drivers honk their horns while in gridlock, with the hope that the constant blaring of horns will make the traffic disappear.
Although the Lagos State government frowns at the growing rate of noise pollution and even warned that those concerned should moderate their activities or face the law, religious houses, music studios, video clubs among others have even doubled their level of noise pollution without being prosecuted yet.
It is time to enforce the law because noise pollution has a lot of negative consequences on the health of the people such as hearing impairment, restlessness, high blood pressure, lack of concentration, body fatigue and loss of sleep.
Findings have shown that in some public schools, over 60 percent of pupils had impaired hearing as a result of their daily exposure to noisy environment. The number is increasing as nothing is done by the law enforcement agencies to curb noise pollution, especially the Ministry of Environment.
Jonathan Aderoju
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