Noise pollution is a major problem but nothing has been done to bring it under control.
Kazem Humayoon, head of planning in the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA), thinks nothing will change unless government offices coordinate efforts.
Noise pollution is a major problem but nothing has been done to bring it under control.
Kazem Humayoon, head of planning in the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA), thinks nothing will change unless government offices coordinate efforts.
“The ministries of interior affairs, culture & information, Kabul Municipality, the presidency of cultural services and NEPA are the institutions that have responsibility for protecting the environment but there is no coordination at all, and no action has been taken to control sound pollution,” says Humayoon.
He insists what is missing is enforcement; the laws are in place. NEPA has framed a plan of action, a bill that was submitted to the Ministry of Justice, which the ministry has yet to scrutinise before it can be sent to the concerned departments for processing.
Sound pollution has increased both outside and inside homes. With most people keeping TV sets on through the day and into the night, there is constant noise in residential neighbourhoods. That apart there is the whirr of fans, kitchen and other domestic appliances. Outside the home, there is the noise of traffic and blaring loudspeakers at public functions.
People living near the airport suffer intensely from low-flying aircraft. NEPA’s Humayoon thinks buildings in the neighbourhood of the airport should be mandatorily insulated to cut down noise levels.
Husain Bahman, a Kabul-based civil society activist, says it is impossible to cut out noise. “Life in Kabul is full of noise. Sometimes loudspeakers blare late into the night. Airplanes take away the silence of people when they pass over houses,” he says.
Mohammad Sarwar is a shopkeeper in Kota Sangi of Kabul. He talks about the constant noise from generators because of Kabul’s chronic electricity shortage. “Sometimes I cannot hear my customers,” he says.
Habibullah is working by his wheelbarrow. “The noise level in the bazaar is unbearable,” he says.
Saleh Sepas is a civil society activist. “Our brain gets no rest when we go to bazaar because of noise pollution. Our ears ring. Shopkeepers sell goods at the top of their voices.”
Right to Quietness
Abdul Wakil Ashrati is a doctor in a Kabul hospital. Loud sound can permanently damage the ear, he says. It also causes stress, a major cause of hypertension and cardiac disease. High noise levels are dangerous also for the foetus in pregnant women.
Humayoon of NEPA is the author of a book on the environmental problems in Afghan cities. He considers the right to live in quietness a human right of citizens.
Apart from noise pollution, people are battling with problems of serious air and water pollution. A study by the Asian Development Bank and NEPA in 2007 found poor fuel quality was a major reason. With vehicles of all sizes and shapes choking Kabul roads, exhaust fumes contribute to the smog over the capital in the winter months. Kabul is spread on the floor of a bowl ringed with high mountains. The 2007 study found worryingly high levels of cadmium. The Kabul River is at best an open sewage drain in most parts.
A United Nations Environment Programme study a year later found plenty to worry about, but “mostly what would be expected of a traffic-congested city: a lot of sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides”, says a 2013 New York Times report. There was also a very high concentration of particulates, known in the trade as PM 10 — which means particles smaller than 10 microns, small enough to penetrate deeply into the lungs, and an important indicator of air pollution and a major cause of respiratory diseases.
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