Dear editor,
I live in Bath, West Berbice, and my family and I, the hard-working sugar workers, the old and the young, face this nasty threat – noise pollution.
Once happy birthday music starts from these houses that have either a car with a big boom-boom box or a big music system, you need to be prepared for at least six hours of loud music, and in one case that particular house starts around the time 6 p.m. and finished the next morning at 8 p.m. In that case, we would leave our home and seek refuge outside of the area. Is there a law for that?
– Wedding houses no longer have jukeboxes, but rent these cars with loud music systems and they park on the street with the trunk open so that the whole village can be bombarded with noise. Is there a law for that?
– On the weekends there is a competition between these cars with loud music in front of the Chinese supermarket, as well as a new bar that also wants to keep up. The drinking and partying lasts late at night until the early hours of the morning. Is there a law for that?
While I have to congratulate law enforcement agencies for adhering to Covid guidelines, especially last Sunday and Monday, I would like to highlight that after 10 p.m. people were still partying with loud music. Is there an exception to the law?
Excessive noise has been shown to cause a range of health problems, ranging from stress, poor concentration, loss of productivity at work, to sleepiness due to lack of sleep. Constant noise also leads to hearing impairment, high blood pressure, heart disease and disorders. In some cases, when it becomes unbearable it leads to confrontation and in one case to loss of life.
In most cases, the owners of these boom-boom boxes in cars will also celebrate and drink alcohol and keep driving to their destinations. You not only endanger your life, but also other road users. Police have recently been trained in the use of breathalyzers and it could be good information about how many drunk drivers have been prosecuted this year and this should be made public.
There are stricter penalties for noise pollution and drunk driving, but we need to arrest the lawbreakers. People are afraid to report noise nuisance because their names will be known within a day to those breaking the law. The noise from the road can be heard while driving with the windows down.
I appeal to the Minister of the Interior and the Police Commissioner to enforce the law and bring a semblance of order to our community. Think of all the sugar workers’ wives who have to prepare food at 3:00 a.m. so their husbands can work at 5:00 a.m. – they need some sleep. The farmers who have to leave at 5:30 a.m. You need sleep. The young children and seniors who have worked their entire lives to enjoy the peace and quiet in their later years need sleep. The nurses who have to focus on their work. You need to sleep before work.
After all, I am not against someone who wants to have fun with their family and friends, but rather does so so that other people are not affected by loud noise.
Sincerely,
(Name and address given)
