20% people suffer from depression, anxiety due to noise pollution: Experts

About 20% of human beings have been suffering from depression and anxiety while wildlife is also being hurt by noise and air pollution in Dhaka as birds are already on the verge of extinction here, environmentalists told a programme. 

They suggested installing a tracking device in vehicles including cars and public transports to monitor noise pollution in a bid to prevent it on a massive scale in Dhaka and other cities of the country and hand over the responsibility to the traffic department to get rid of the silent killer. 

"Educational institutions and industrial factories should be relocated from the residential areas to maintain the noise level by ensuring proper land use," said Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan (Bapa) Joint Secretary Alamgir Kabir at an awareness meeting with partners under the Department of Environment's 'Integrated and Partnership Project to Control Noise Pollution' at Dhaka Reporter's Unity in the city on Tuesday.

He added that sensitisation seminars on the hazards of honking should be organised with the owners and drivers while registering vehicles with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). 

"We are turning into a deaf nation slowly due to excessive noise pollution," he said, asking "if Nepal can declare a no-horn city, why can't we?"

He suggested using technology in cars instead of spending money on foreign tours so that when a vehicle exceeds the audible limit, there will be a signal, which will automatically go into the system and the car will be brought to book.

As chief guest, member of the parliamentary standing committee on the environment ministry Advocate Khodeja Nasrin Akhter Hossain said that general people are the direct victims of noise pollution. 

"This is why we need to work together because noise pollution is a silent killer. We need to work on noise pollution in the same manner we are working on climate adaptation," she said, suggesting use of digital technology to identify who is causing the noise pollution.

She, however, said, "Many have recommended that the MP-ministers should use public transport to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution and noise pollution of Dhaka. In that case, who will provide security to the country's policymakers?"

On this issue, Save the Environment Movement (Poba) Chairman Abu Naser Khan said, "We have been talking on the issue since 1995, but sometimes it feels disappointing. Today we look at the car-based communication system in Dhaka city occupying 70%-80% of the roads." 

"We are involved with the environmental movement too. But there are ACs in our houses, in cars and offices. Our lawmakers who are ministers, do not use public transport," he said, adding: "If we do not develop public transport as a mode of communication excluding cars, then this air pollution, noise pollution will not come down."

Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) Additional Executive Director Mohammad Rabiul Alam said that the enforcement authorities of the government should be provided with noise level measuring devices. He also suggested planting trees as sound barriers along the roads to prevent noise pollution.