Foreign crusaders battle noise pollution in city

Katarzyna Trzpiola from Poland and Leonie Timmers from The Netherlands,who have been interning with an environmental NGO in Ahmedabad,said it was their “irritation with so much noise” when they had first arrived in the city,that spurred them to begin the campaign.

In its recently released annual report,the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) had also disclosed the results of noise monitoring during the Navratri and Dussehra festival,and concluded,“The ambient noise levels in Gujarat during the monitoring period at all time were above the specified ambient noise standards.” But rather than action,the GPCB admitted that more effort was needed for “effective implementation of the noise standards”.

The GPCB had,at first,proposed to offer Trzpiola and Timmers assistance,but later told them they cannot do it before September 15,since the board had to follow the Model Code of Conduct till the bypolls were over,said Trzpiola.

But since Timmers has to return home in the first week of September,they went ahead with the plan without waiting for the GPCB

“Everyone told us it would be impossible,but we said if everyone says impossible all the time,things will never change. So we started off,” said Trzpiola.

They began with their survey with 100 residents. The findings revealed that 96 per cent were either “very annoyed” or “annoyed” by too much honking; 94 per cent supported a ban on “excessive use of horns”; and 82 per cent “liked the idea of a no horn day”.

This prompted the duo to approach colleges and build up an awareness campaign on campuses. To meet their financial constraints,they also organised poster competitions in three languages – Gujarati,Hindi and English – which will be used at silent student rallies on major crossroads and main roads across the city on Saturday.

After visiting three colleges in two days,the duo plans to visit 10 to 15 more colleges with the belief that if citizens are aware,authorities will have no choice but to enforce the laws.