Is the moment for change over?
July 2015
The moment for change was over 2011-2015
The moment for change has passed us by and it might never come again.
We might blame the failure on, “lack of political will”.
What about, ‘change must be driven from the bottom up’.
After two years of hard work and resolve; NASoM, thought that at last things were changing.
The ‘Noise Abatement, Prevention and Control Act’ regulations; piloted by Dr. M. DeMarco, was posted on Dec 2012. But, alas, it was not enacted. Maybe due to the forthcoming 2013 election?
Since the labour party was elected to govern Malta, in 2013, noise pollution was off the environment agenda. Except when the noise from the open-air theatre interfered with a conference at Castille!
Imagine our surprise and interest, when a new version of the, ‘Noise Abatement, Prevention and Control Act’, surfaced. But reading through this Act it reminded me of the previous regulations, ‘Noise Prevention and Control (Framework) Regulations’, published by the previous administration.
The main difference is that, Schedule II; ‘WHO Noise Guideline’, of the original regulations, was missing. The guidelines specify the critical effect to health from the exposure to various noise levels.
Therefore, what is the point of this exercise? It is a given that this Government was not expected to legislated what was published on the 11th hour by its predecessors. On the other hand, tweaking the previous regulations would have given the desired result. Since there was substantive preparatory work; including the input by the opposition, carried out regarding the legal and the administrative areas.
Hence those whose health is being jeopardised by the ever-increasing noise pollution would, in my opinion, have to wait another couple of years to see day light at the end of the tunnel.
John Fenech
NASoM
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