The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within the last two years received over 1100 complaints about noise pollution in the construction sector across the country, according to Executive Director Kemraj Parsram.
The EPA head spoke about this and other issues during a recent in-house programme titled “EPA 360”.
“We’ve managed to investigate 300 and deal with them, we have another 866,” Parsram explained, noting that the organisation is limited by resources.
He reminded that apart from the construction sector, the EPA deals with issues in other sectors.
“We are only 170-something staff, and that includes administrative as well as the technical. So, imagine complaints from all sectors across the country,” he explained.
Providing some insight on how they investigate these complaints, Parsram noted that some cases require the involvement of other government agencies.
“With road construction, it would require other agencies to become involved. Many of our roads are subcontracted,” he outlined.
“…the problem is that they may have all the systems in place, but then you have a subcontractor who is to bring materials to the road, and these truck drivers, they drive like they don’t care, they try to get as much trips in, and then they drive and they don’t abide by speed limits. And when you don’t do that, in an open road, fast driving…will cause noise, vibration and dust,” he added.
Meanwhile, the EPA boss said the organisation plans to collaborate with the private sector agencies to sensitise stakeholders about the issue and how to lower/eliminate pollution of any form from their operations.
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