Can officials keep the city quiet?
In an effort to combat continuing noise pollution, Nguyen Thi Thu, vice chairwoman of the municipal People’s Committee, has instructed city departments and districts to provide an emergency reporting hotline, according to VnExpress. The hotline is the latest measure taken by officials to try and solve a seemingly unsolvable problem in the rapidly developing city.
Officials have had problems with noise pollution in major cities across Vietnam for a long time now. Last year, the Institute of Occupational Health and Environment (IOHE) documented a number of major streets in both Hanoi and HCMC that exceeded loudness restrictions imposed by Vietnam’s Environment Protection Law (EPL), but little has been done to turn down the volume.
It’s not clear what mandate the response teams could have, should they be deployed. In the past, written warnings have been easily ignored, but penalties written into the EPL stipulate that officials could fine offenders between VND1 million and VND160 million for noise pollution.
Keeping Saigon under the legal noise limit of 70 decibels has not been easy. Traffic laws, which stipulate that drivers shouldn’t use horns to signal at night, aren’t known, let alone obeyed. Meanwhile many roadside businesses in residential areas, like restaurants and bike mechanics, have a difficult time of obliging with requests to keep it down.
Doan Ngoc Hai – the head of IOHE, not the city's sidewalk crusader of the same name – has publicly condemned the noise pollution. His organization has found that up to 15 million people working in Vietnam have to deal with “excessive noise,” as per VnExpress.
Hai has also stated that noise pollution can lead to long-term problems such as sleeping disorders, high blood pressure and cognitive impairment among children.
For now, the city’s latest directive to departments is the only information to be released by officials so far.
[Photo via VnExpress]
