– Public Security Ministry’s task force recommendation

BARS and liquor restaurants in the near future will have to be sound proof before they are issued an operation licence from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Ministry of Public Security’s Task Force on noise nuisance has recommended.

This was disclosed by Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, during two-day workshop on Noise Management Training for police officers at the Police Training Complex, Camp Road, Eve Leary, Georgetown on Thursday.

“Of course that standard will take some time because we know the peculiar nature of our conditions here,” the minister noted.

He said the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are the enforcing agencies which are governed by the laws of Guyana.

“We have been receiving ongoing complaints from all across the country and we want this to be dealt with, we have to deal with them in a variety of ways too, not only prosecution and conviction for the various provisions that make it a criminal offence, but we have to literally work sometimes as a task force, utilising other methods and one such method is to take the profit out of the illegality,” Minister Ramjattan said.
He said that means the guilty businesses must be deregistered and the licence granted by GRA will be taken away.

“It must be made a condition that before you continue to do your bar services that we are going to make a condition that you must adhere to certain noise levels and when it is breached, we can take the licence away,” Ramjattan said.
He explained that societal living requires a balance and music must be enjoyed but such must be done with others rights in mind.

“In enjoying your rights, you cannot affect the rights of others and that is where there is a collision course especially in a democratic society,” he noted.

Minister Ramjattan further explained that the interagency approach has been adapted to deal with noise pollution and the partners includes the EPA, the GPF, the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), the Central Planning and Housing Authority (CH&PA), the Public Infrastructure Ministry and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
He said the objective of the task force is to ensure a greater enforcement of the laws and regulation on noise nuisance and to reduce discomfort caused by noise pollution while building a culture of law and order countrywide.
The minister said the noise management training is important in making an impact on the task force on noise pollution.

Meanwhile, Force Training Officer (FTO), Assistant Commissioner, Clifton Hicken said the GPF and the EPA have established a partnership to tackle noise nuisance, which cannot be treated in isolation.

The assistant commissioner said cooperation of members of the public is needed in order to have successful prosecution since the enforcement exercise with the EPA ensures transparency.

The force training officer noted that partnerships with the media and other stakeholders are needed to educate society, which will result in successful prosecutions.

“When we are looking for statements and they are not forthcoming. It looks like if the police are not taking the appropriate action. Awareness is necessary and the public needs to know that if they want to have the noise pollution stemmed or managed so that the impact will be less, they will have to cooperate with us too,” the FTO said.
Hicken hopes that the training will be continuous until every member of the GPF understands the concept and partnership approach towards fighting noise pollution, which is an epidemic in society.

EPA Executive Director, Dr. Vincent Adams, said the establishment of the interagency task force on noise nuisance in July 2017 is testimony to the persistence of noise-related emissions and the authorities’ commitment to allocate resources to address and eventually mitigate the problem.

Adding that the development of a strategy to effectively address noise nuisance must be based on proper scientific collection and evaluation of data, Dr. Adams said the training of police will expose them to strategies to collect noise data using the noise meter and analyse the data obtained.