Macao needs noise control?

By Cherry, Leong Cheng I

"You keep on listening to music using your headphones even when you are walking to school. Can't you let your ears have a break?" A mother complains to her son. "My ears would prefer Lady Gaga's pop music to the noise produced by the ground drills or the horns of cars. Taking off my headphones is really torture for my ears!" the son replies.
When you stay outdoors, it is not difficult to see workers repairing roads, vehicles queuing up along the roads, casinos, hotels and buildings under construction. Noise produced by the ground drills, piling machines, roaring vehicles, and the like have become part of our daily life.
In addition, there are other noises that are even more common in our environment - shouting, mahjong playing, late night music and so on. However, the current noise control regulations are quite lenient, there is not only no regulation to control noises in the living environment like those produced by playing mahjong, pets, and loud music, etc, but also the regulation sets only the time restriction for the use of piling machines.
According to the consultation report of revision of the noise control regulations issued by the Macao Environment Protection Department (DSAP), the degree of noise produced by piling machines used in Macao is currently 16 times more than the standard level of decibels that normal people can bear. Thus, revised regulations mainly focus on the control of noise produced by piling machines. The regulations do mention that individuals who produce loud noises between 8 pm to 8 am the next morning could be penalized for a fine varying from MOP500 to MOP2500.
In a research obtained from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the number of noise complaints received by the police had increased from 2155 in 2002 to 4020 in 2008, but it decreased slightly to 3894 in 2009. Is there a need to control
the noise more strictly?
Nicole Wang, who is a customer service representative working in a local bank and lives in Taipa, says that her neighbor is always playing the music very loudly after 11:00 pm. "I can't sleep because of those noises. I always have a difficult time
when I need to work at 8 am the next day. I can't locate the apartment in which the music is played," she says. She thinks that the revised regulations will be useful as there is no regulation to control the noise in our environment at the moment.
Liza Leung who is a housewife living in the northern region of Macao is an experienced noise complainer. The region where she lives is always very noisy even very late at night. "I am always complaining to the police, but the police just give warnings to the noise makers. Although they stopped making the noise immediately, a few days later, they went back to their habits again," Leung says.
Leung held great hope for the implementation of the revised noise control regulations because people who produce noise would be punished, she expects.
According to the information from DSAP, the consultation report of revision of the noise control regulations received 250 pieces of opinion during the consultation period. DSAP is finalizing the regulation revision and will try to bring it to the
legislature before the end of this year.