EMA: Police not taking noise pollution seriously

ENVIRONMENTAL Management Authority (EMA) managing director Hayden Romano says the police are not taking the issue of noise pollution seriously.

He was speaking on Wednesday as EMA officials and representatives of the Planning Ministry met with officials of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at the Parliament building.

PAC member Paula Gopee-Scoon asked if for Carnival 2019 anyone was charged for noise pollution.

The EMA’s manager of legal services Jenell Partap said people would put in application for a noise variation, but there was a “host” of notices of violation.

Romano said 2019 was a very successful year for policing noise pollution, but there were some events held at the National Stadium that had noise variations from the EMA but included fireworks.

“And that concerns us, because nowhere in that application had anything to do with fireworks. And we were even more concerned because the Fire Services and the police were present for the fireworks, and therefore maybe we have not been as successful as think we’re being with respect to our co-ordination with the other agencies.”

He said noise is really the remit of the police.

“Yes, they have so much more to do and they don’t take it as seriously as they should.”

Romano said the Environmental Management Act and subsidiary legislation were meant as soft legislation which would give citizens the time to do the right thing.

“We felt that as all Trinidadians living on our little piece of rock we would do the right thing. That is not happening. And therefore we need to update our legislation.”

EMA chairman Nadra Nathai-Gyan said the EMA had had to take a piecemeal approach to fixing some legislation. but was currently looking at principal and subsidiary legislation. She added amendments were needed to make the authority more efficient.