The environmental police continue to receive complaints of alleged noise pollution from the public. In our country, it is unlawful for any person to willfully make or continue or cause to be made any loud, unnecessary or unusual noise which disturbs the peace and quiet of any neighborhood or causes discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person, of normal sensitiveness residing in the area.
However, members of the public need to understand that, because something is loud, it does not mean its illegal. There are exceptions like under emergency work, public health and safety activities and industrial zones etc.
Therefore, the task team will jointly determine the standards, on as to whether there is a noise ordinance violation or not. These include; sound level of the objectionable noise, proximity of the noise to residential sleeping facilities, nature and zoning of the area, with which the noise emanates, time of the day night the noise occurs, duration of the noise and its musical content, whether the noise is continuous, recurrent or intermittent.
The task team will only declare a noise act as disturbing, excessive or offensive after visiting the venue with a sound meter and determine whether sound level is acceptable or not. Chronic noise producers who refuse to cooperate or follow the prescribed mitigation plan, shall be subjected to civil penalties, court action and suspension of outdoor amplified or acoustic music for a period. The mitigation plan may include; restrictions on days of the week, or hours noise producing activity, structural changes, reviews, revision or termination of the plan.
Source: Uganda Police Force