NOISE nuisance has been a national cry for too long. We hope the Ministry of Home Affairs and the new Ministry of Natural Resources keep their promise to this nation. We, the residents of West Demerara have endured much of this nuisance with little assistance from the police. As each time a complainant makes a report you are told the patrol is unavailable. We would like to suggest in the interest of transparency, the public be informed of the number of patrols available for the West Demerara Police stations.

We also, recognise the fact that there may be other emergency matters, therefore, it is not always practical for the patrol to investigate promptly – but our experience of waiting for as long as seven hours and forever is ridiculously too long. The Georgetown Hospital deals with life and death situations but the triage system has greatly improved the service offered. We want to suggest a similar system be put in place for police stations taking reports, and responses time and a protocol implemented to cater for complainants who do not get a response from the police.
We also, recognise the current government’s policies can be contracting as it relates to noise nuisance and the various ministries. For example the Ministry of Health is working feverishly on mental health to which noise nuisance is a spin off, the Ministry of Tourism promote limes, expos with deafening noise that exceeds the recommended decibels while the Ministry of Home Affairs and the now Ministry of Natural Resources need to enforce the noise limits set by the national standard/regulation.
We look forward to a peaceful Christmas holiday that is free from music systems that vibrate one’s windows and doors as there are elderly, sick and persons that are still required to work shift over the holidays. These sophisticated music systems should only be allowed to play in parks, open spaces, creeks etc (as with kite flying).
The police need to be reminded of their role to maintain law and order and to treat all complaints with the strictest confidence. Public education and awareness through the media will help greatly in reducing this national cry – the enforcing ministries need to inform the nation of the consequences of playing music that exceed the require decibels.