Enforcing law is my job, not silencing horns, says Environment Advisor Rizwana

She says honking will not stop overnight, people need to change their habits first

Environment and Climate Change Advisor Syeda Rizwana Hasan has said her role is to enforce noise pollution laws, not to personally stop people from honking horns.

She emphasised the need for behavioural change among the public while speaking at the Green Energy Olympiad 2025 at the Military Museum in Dhaka’s Bijoy Sarani on Saturday.

“People always come up to me saying, ‘Apa, the horns haven’t stopped’. But you've been honking for 53 years, your driver will keep honking, and then you blame me for not stopping it,” she remarked.

“It’s not my duty to silence horns. My responsibility is to enforce the law. What we really need is a behavioural shift,” she said.

Bangladesh introduced the Noise Pollution (Control) Rules in 2006 to regulate sound levels based on time and area.

In designated silent zones, the maximum permissible noise is 40 decibels at night and 50 during the day.

For residential areas, it is set at 45 and 55 decibels respectively.

In mixed-use zones, the acceptable limits are 50 at night and 60 during the day, while in commercial areas, it rises to 60 and 70. Industrial zones are allowed to go up to 70 decibels at night and 75 during the daytime.

As every vehicle typically has just one horn, its sound level should remain below 40 decibels.

However, the Department of Environment’s recent drives have shown that most vehicles in Dhaka far exceed that threshold.

Following the fall of the previous government, a 1.5-kilometre stretch around Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport — from Scholastica School to Hotel Le Méridien — was designated as a silent zone on Oct 1 under Rule 4 of the 2006 regulations.

Rizwana previously announced plans to declare 10 more roads in Dhaka silent zones starting from January.

Speaking at the event, the environment advisor warned that the world being left for future generations would be dangerously uninhabitable, with the frequency and intensity of floods and cyclones rising to unprecedented levels.

Referring to the inclusion of youth in governance, Rizwana said: “This government belongs to the youth. That doesn’t mean I am calling myself young. But this is the first time in Bangladesh’s history that three young individuals were appointed to the advisory council. They were—and still are—handling important responsibilities.”