Dhaka is too noisy for sleep. Loud horns keep environment minister awake at night

Environment Minister Md Shahab Uddin has called for strict measures to stop drivers from using loud horns, wondering how people sleep in the noisy city of Dhaka.

He raised the issue at an event in the capital on Monday. “Drivers honk horns for no reason. I wonder how the residents of Dhaka can sleep when I can’t sleep due to loud horns despite being the environment minister.”

“People use the banned horns on the empty roads -- mile after mile. I can’t sleep even at 3am or 4am. The law enforcers should make people aware about the issue and force [drivers to follow the rules on horns].”

Citing an anecdote from his own life, Shahab Uddin said he had to travel 22 kilometres during his stay in a foreign country to put a banana skin in a bin.

“But here we throw garbage here and there. We don’t follow the law. But we do it when we’re forced to,” he said.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan recently shared his bitter experience of the noise pollution caused by the use of these high-volume car horns, even in the dead of night.

“I live in government quarters in Dhanmondi. Around 2:30am I heard a loud noise. Probably an ambulance. But the road was totally empty, there were no pedestrians. Despite this, they kept using the siren. They were completely oblivious to the fact that they were disturbing people or waking them from their sleep.”

The environment, forest and climate change ministry organised the event in partnership with the World Bank at a hotel on a sustainable plan to manage plastics.

The minister urged all to reduce the use of plastic products and recycle them to save the environment.

The use of plastics in the urban areas of Bangladesh has increased to 9 kg per person in a year in 2020 from three kg in 2005, according to data released at the event. The residents of Dhaka use 24 kg plastics per head annually.

The coronavirus pandemic is worsening the situation as masks, gloves and protective equipment are being added to the garbage.