Cars’ honking is causing sound pollution which is resulting to physical and mental health problem and also reducing people’s hearing power. In future this problem will get serious and will affect our health, education and also behavior. Continuous sound pollution is badly affecting hearing capacity. Though government has adopted Sound Pollution (control) Rules 2006, there is no initiative to implement it. According to the Rules sound limit in the silent zone, such as hospitals, schools, colleges, Masjid and areas declared by government, is 50 decibels. But at present the level is 100 decibels which is enough to damage our hearing capacity. On 30 April 2015, at 11 am, to celebrate International Sound Awareness Day, Work for A Better Bangladesh Trust and Poribesh Bachao Andolon (POBA) jointly organized a demonstration named ‘Sound Pollution (control) Rules should be implemented for the development of public health’.

Abu Naser khan, chairman, Poribesh Bachao Andolon, was the presided and Ziaur Rahman Litu, Project Officer, Work for A Better Bangladesh Trust was the moderator of the demonstration. Besides them Naznin Kabir, Senior Project Officer, Work for A Better Bangladesh Trust; Monjur Hasan Dilu, social worker; Nurul Islam, Principal, Dhanmondi Kachikantha School, Md. Ali Hazari, CEO, United People’s Trust etc were present in the demonstration.

Naznin Kabir, Senior Project Officer, Work for A Better Bangladesh Trust, said that, sound pollution is one of the main reasons of environment pollution. It is silent killer. Sound pollution causes headache, crabbed behavior, insomnia, lack of concentration and many more. Traffic police, drivers and those spending more times in the roads are the main victims of sound pollution. A research from Pune, India shows that 80% traffic police suffers from hearing deficiency because of cars’ honking. WBB trust measures sound level in different parts of Dhaka within every three months. And it is observed that the level of sound is increasing gradually. Shahbagh is declared as a silent zone even then the highest sound level is 110 decibels and lowest is 80 decibels. It is quite dangerous for us. And government should prioritize the implementation process of Sound Pollution (control) Rules 2006.

Abu Naser khan, chairman, Poribesh Bachao Andolon (POBA), said that, sound level should be controlled to save our future generation from the danger of sound pollution. Government should adopt a roadmap to implement Sound Pollution (control) Rules 2006. Relevant organizations should come forward to play their roles. Such as Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) can play an important role to prevent unnecessary car honking. Responsibilities should be distributed among city corporation, RAJUK, environment department and other relevant ones. Government can apply fines and punishments through mobile court to control honking.

The organizers suggested some recommendations like: implementing Sound Pollution (control) Rules 2006; establish and maintain monitoring system; include sound pollution issue in the training module of the drivers; banning hydraulic horns; applying fines and punishments for the rule breakers and many more.