Fighting the noise in India's 'Maximum City'

Fighting the noise in India's 'Maximum City'
by AFP/Phil Hazlewood (/node/295), Feb 16, 2009 | Destinations: India (/taxonomy/term/30) / Mumbai (/taxonomy/term/358)
Mumbai, February 10, 2009 - Retired doctor Yeshwant Oke is old enough to remember the 1940s, when only the rumble of electric trams Tlled the streets of Bombay.
Six decades on and the city now known as Mumbai is one of the noisiest on earth, battered day and night by car, taxi and auto-rickshaw horns, factory noise and ear-splitting construction work.
For anti-noise campaigners like Dr Oke, the health of Mumbaikars and other Indian city dwellers is increasingly at risk through sustained exposure to loud noise but calls for urgent action are falling on deaf ears.
"People and patients are silently suZering as they feel helpless," the former consultant, who is a little hard of hearing himself, said by email.
"People feel agitated and angry, impotent to some extent. Indians are very docile. They would rather suZer than have enmity with the neighbours.
"But lately patience is wearing thin, and more and more people are complaining to get relief."
Kanu Desai also remembers the calm of the 1940s. Now 80 and recovering from a spinal operation, he has been Tghting a lengthy battle with the authorities about a factory generator next to his central Mumbai _at.
The noise, measured at 90 decibels (dB), lasts from morning until night, he said.
"It's continuous noise. It's di`cult to sleep. My servant has become deaf in one ear. He's 75. I have to shout," he said.
"I'm an old man. In the afternoon I like to rest. There are 10 senior citizens in this building, ladies and gentlemen. Children can't study because of the noise. They can't concentrate."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that some 120 million people worldwide have hearing di`culties. Loud noise can be a contributory factor for high blood pressure, heart disease and exacerbate mental health problems.
According to Sumaira Abdulali, who has taken readings across India's Maximum City, people here have to endure a constant 80-85 decibels of outside noise -- nearly twice as loud as the safe levels WHO recommends for cities.
"I think all Indian cities are pretty noisy but Bombay has such a dense population and has both slums as well as the richest people," said Abdulali, who runs an environmental charity the Awaaz (Voice) Foundation.
"Both of them feel they have a right to make noise because the other one can't tell them what to do. Each one is quite self-righteous about it."
Three-wheeled auto-rickshaws are among the worst noise polluters, said Abdulali. Drivers often tamper with the silencers to get better mileage, nudging the high-pitched buzz of the two- stroke engine to near 100 dB.
Horns -- which are sounded at every opportunity -- then have to be louder to compensate.
Construction work can be louder still. Pile-driving for the foundations of the many high-rise buildings springing up across Mumbai can reach 110 dB -- equivalent to the sound of low-_ying aircraft or a jet taking oZ.
But that is nothing compared to the din of Trecrackers, drums and loudspeakers during India's many religious festivals and street processions.
Abdulali has tested Trecrackers on sale for the annual Hindu festival of light, Diwali and found typical readings in the 125 dB to 145 dB range.
"They were painful. These things need to be completely stopped," she said, calling them "unauthorised explosives".
Oke cites an example of an elderly woman with a heart complaint who died of a heart attack after a Diwali Trecracker exploded outside her window in the middle of the night.
Firecrackers were set oZ last year in the grounds of a hospital.
Noise regulation laws were introduced in India in 2000, setting limits in industrial, commercial and residential areas, with stiZ Tnes for oZenders.
The use of loudspeakers is now restricted, there have been poster campaigns, "no-honking days" and plans for a noise-mapping project in Mumbai. City authorities are also drawing up new construction industry guidelines.
But campaigners say there remains little awareness about the dangers of noise pollution while legislation is not enforced because of a lack of police resources or vested interests of politicians or the powerful construction industry lobby.
Desai is disappointed at the response to his complaints.
"They (the authorities) just come and give us hopes," he said with a shrug.
Abdulali fears that urban planners in Mumbai are forcing its 14 million residents to accept extreme noise as part of life.
"Indian culture is essentially one of the noisiest in the world" with little concern that individual actions aZect others, said Oke, adding that children and young people need to be educated about the impact of noise and harsher punishments should be introduced for those who break the law.
Oke said that as the WHO warns that developing economies are more aZected by noise pollution, doing nothing could aZect India's growth.
"Noise reduces e`ciency and productivity in general," he added. ***** 

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