Accra, April 15, GNA - Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), on Friday called for a collective effort to formulate and enforce the necessary legislation on noise pollution in the country.

She said 93We have to respect the country's environmental laws to ensure that the environment is free of noise pollution," she stressed at the launch of the Sixth National Noise Awareness Celebration in Accra.

The year-long awareness creation is embarked upon by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and MEST to continuously educate the public on the dangers of excessive noise making.

It is on the theme: 93Noise is a slow and subtle killer: Protect your hearing, protect your health", and seek to sensitise the public on the effects of noise on human health, which interferes the peace, comfort and convenience of individuals.

Ms Ayittey said noise pollution was becoming a national concern, which must be tackled with the needed seriousness just like the efforts put in the fight against HIV and AIDS to protect people's lives.

She said it was necessary for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), to help to enforce bye-laws on noise pollution and appealed to churches, mosques and traditional rulers to collaborate to ensure that excessive noise pollution was stopped. Ms Ayittey said if the Ga Traditional Council could succeed in enforcing laws on noise making during festive occasions, policy implementers could also succeed in enforcing environmental noise pollution in the country.

She said noise was inevitable because most productive activities were associated with noise generation and stressed the need to create the awareness and to develop measures to mitigate its effects on society.

Mr Daniel Amlalo, Acting Executive Director of EPA, said despite the campaign to address noise pollution, activities of churches and mosques continued to generate the most noise, which had been a major problem facing the country.

He appealed to all institutions to draw regulations on noise making so that the EPA would collaborate to see how best the problem would be addressed.

Mr Amlalo gave the assurance that the Agency would continue to measure the level of noise in chop bars, lorry stations, discos and other social entertainment points to minimise noise pollution.