Meeting to implement actions to mitigate noise pollution

The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Orlando Jorge Mera, headed this Friday the first meeting of the working table of the National Anti-Noise Commission, which aims to implement actions to mitigate noise pollution in the country.

This Commission was created through Decree 10-12, dated January 18, 2012, and to date had not had actors to promote a National Noise Abatement Plan for the benefit of the citizenry.

The National Anti-Noise Commission is integrated by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, which chairs it; the Ministry of Public Health; the Ministry of Interior and Police; the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, represented by the Attorney General’s Office for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources; the National Police; the National System of Emergency Attention and Security 9-1-1; the General Directorate of Transit and Land Transportation; the Commonwealth of Municipalities.

During this first meeting, an analysis was made of the seriousness of harmful noise in the country, obstacles were identified which have prevented the problem from being tackled successfully, and proposals were presented which will allow the issue to be dealt with firmly and effectively.

Among the proposals put forward by the representatives of the entities that make up the National Anti-Noise Commission and which were accepted by the Minister of the Environment is the integration of other institutions such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the societies of Otorhinolaryngology and Psychiatry, due to the importance of educating and making the population aware of the issue of noise pollution.

Likewise, Jorge Mera highlighted the importance of carrying out publicity campaigns to orient the citizens about the damage caused by harmful noise.

“Certainly, we have to articulate this National Noise Abatement Plan because this national plan will articulate education, will articulate the prosecution, will articulate the health issue, and will articulate the municipality; clear and decisive because we do nothing with an operation one day, two days without the municipal authorities have real and effective knowledge, the ability to carry this out,” said the Minister.

Among the data shared at the meeting that put into context the reality of noise pollution in the Dominican Republic, it is highlighted that from 2014 to date, the National System for Emergency Attention and Security 9-1-1 has received more than 740 thousand noise complaints in Greater Santo Domingo alone, of which, more than 700 thousand correspond to complaints about loud music.

Finally, it was agreed to convene the next meeting with representatives of the Ministries of Interior and Police and Public Health, the National System of Emergency Attention and Security 9-1-1, and the municipal authorities, to prepare a project to define the National Noise Reduction Plan to be presented to the country and the central government.

These institutions were represented by Francisco Contreras Núñez, Specialized Attorney for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources; Iván Gómez, representative of the city council; José Sánchez Payano, Directorate for the Control of Alcoholic Beverages (COBA) of the Ministry of Interior and Police; Rafael Lorenzo, representative of the Dominican Federation of Municipalities.

Also in attendance were Tomás García, colonel of the National Police, and Carlos Manuel Cueto, director of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance.

The Ministry of the Environment was represented by Juan Eduardo Julia Mera, Vice Minister of Coastal and Marine Affairs; Francisco Contreras, Assistant General of the Environmental Attorney General’s Office; Camila Minerva Rodríguez, Environmental Supervision, and Control; Nadia Martínez, Director of Environmental Regulations and Investigations; María Del Carmen Vargas, Director of Environmental Quality; and Nildia Elena Rosario Minaya, in charge of the Department of Legal Document Preparation.