Be more thorough, EMA

THE EDITOR: It seems as though many complaints to the Environmental Management Authority about noise pollution in the Aranjuez area have fallen on deaf ears. Numerous calls have been made in the past to the EMA about noise emanating from a bar on the Aranjuez Main Road. The EMA claimed that they made random checks at the bar on different occasions last year and found no violation of the relevant laws pertaining to noise pollution.

However, these checks are just not good enough. For an organisation that is set up to deal with issues on the environment, spot checks just do not cut it in these modern times. The EMA claims that after three checks on the situation, if nothing is found that violates the current laws, then the file is closed. I strongly urge the EMA to reconsider this approach since people’s lives are being affected due to the constant blasting of music until the wee hours of the morning.

For example, on the night of Tuesday March 2, 2004, music coming from the bar could be heard in the bedrooms of nearby residents up until 2 am. It means that if the EMA chooses three days in the year to do its spot checks and then close its file, then it leaves the bar three hundred and sixty two days in the year to “wake up the neighbourhood.” Therefore, it does not take much to outfox the EMA, does it?

Maybe it may be wise for the EMA to set up a hotline whereby persons can lodge an instant complaint to the authorities who can then carry out a prompt investigation, something like the E999 or EHS Hotline. Once again, not wanting to come down too hard on the EMA, I urge the owners or managers of the bar to have some consideration for the residents of the area and please reduce the level of bass that it incorporates in its music. Please remember that when you are comfortably sleeping the next day, most of us are hard at work.

JACK  RAMJIT
Port-of-Spain