STOP NOISE POLLUTION IN LUSAKA

NOISE being unwanted sound, is naturally a disturbance to the ears and affects both health and behavior.
It can equally damage physiological health, cause hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects.
This is why the residents of Lusaka’s Kaunda Square have every good reason to challenge Lusaka City Council (LCC) to regulate the opening and closing times of bars in the area and indeed the rest of Lusaka where loud and irritating music is also the order of the day.
The residents have complained that that it is unfair for the council to only concentrate on harassing street vendors while allowing savage lawlessness to continue in bars and night clubs where loud music is played much to the annoyance of the people.
One resident, Mary Kalaluka, says that the council should force bars to open bars after 12:00 hours and not early in the morning.
Ms. Kalaluka maintains that it is not right for bars to open as early as 06:00 hours as the case was now in many compounds of Lusaka, obviously taking advantage of the LCC inertia.
“How can we have productive people in Zambia if bars are allowed to open as early as 06:00 hours and close the following day? Laws are there but they are not being enforced,” she says.
She says that the need for the council to strengthen its by-laws on regulating opening and closing times for bars cannot be overemphasized because it is something it should do without further delays.
Another resident, Mr Bwalya Mwansa, however blames fellow residents for starting to drink beer early in the morning.
He says the local authority must employ more officers to ensure that people do not open their bars early especially those located in residential areas.
“Let the council stop fighting running battles with street vendors alone because it is not the only job that they are supposed to be doing but they should also consider ending this problem that has been there for a long time now,” Mr. Mwansa says.
He says that the council should seriously start revoking licenses and prosecuting bar owners who open bars very early in the morning and go beyond their stipulated time of closing while at the same playing music using big boom-boxes at a very high volume.
Just how many times should the concerned authorities be reminded that high noise levels can contribute to cardiovascular effects in humans and an increased incidence of coronary artery disease?
Those who have passed near such drinking places will agree that the patrons do not actually appear normal.
The majority of them seem to be suffering from misophonia, a hearing or psychiatric disorder which in many people can lead to what are known as anxiety syndromes.
Apart from noise pollution, these bars and night clubs have become valuable dens for armed thieves and other bad eggs of the society who quickly rush there after their usual successful operations.
The most crushing aspect of the whole matter is the fact that both State and council police officers knock off at exactly 17.00 hours every day probably to give chance to these brigands to ply their evil trades without disruption.
Lusaka is probably the only capital city in the world where cops are a rare commodity and this sad development has given rise to crime in compounds where gangs of criminals such as the now famous ‘junkies’ have become masters of their own.
This has also unfortunately led to the growth of under-age patrons who have taking to drinking alcohol like the world was shutting down yesterday.
Our earnest appeal therefore is to our local authority to join hands with relevant government wings to bring sanity in bars and night clubs which are breaking the law which mind-boggling impunity.
This they should do because the majority of patrons in these bars and night clubs are our prized youths, future leaders of Zambia