A lot has been said about noise pollution during the recent months. In January 2017, the Police environmental department mounted a task force to deal with the various complaints from the community. Two months after its existence, the department received 30 complaints from households’ noise pollution, four complaints for car pollution and three cases against picnickers. All have been dealt with and the offenders have been warned.
The Chief of Environmental Police, Andre Freminot, aong with police spokesperson Jean Toussaint, met the press this week to take stock of the situation and talk about the way forward.
“The majority of the population obeys and respects the laws. Unfortunately there are still some complaints about noise pollution. After a new set of laws was enacted last year, the Environment Protection Act, it helped in acting like a deterrent and prevents more offences to be committed. We want to inform the public that there is a task force and we are very serious about our interventions. We want to ask them to redeem themselves before we get into action,” explained Mr Toussaint.
“It has been two months since we are patrolling the hot spots and visiting districts on Mahé only. We have been responding to complaints. When an offence is committed, the police collect all the relevant information and the culprit is warned. Then the information is handed over to the environmental police. It is only the director of Environment that has the mandate to issue a notice for action,” noted Mr Freminot.
The Environment Police do act on Praslin and La Digue also whenever there are complaints.
The Environmental Police have been responding to quite a few cases and there were instances where some parts of the musical instruments have been seized.
“We do encounter some resistance when we are on the field and this mainly comes from people who are under the influence of substances and most of the complaints are received during week-ends,” added Mr Toussaint.
Mr Freminot also said that “there are no laws preventing people from playing music, but we have to respect the rights of others also. But if someone is found guilty in generating noise pollution, he/she can be fined R25,000 or 2 years imprisonment or both. But we have to say that many areas have started to comply with the new law. At Ile Perseverance for example, the level of noise pollution has decreased”.
Both representatives of the police call on the public to respect each other’s rights and to collaborate to make the community a peaceful place to live in.
