Lagos residents at war over generator noise

Lagosians get better with innovations as life gets harder. The comfort of such innovations is however turning hitherto loving neighbours into sworn enemies, TUNDE ALAO writes.

ON Tuesday, during his Democracy Day speech to the nation, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that fewer Nigerians now use generators due to improved electricity supply to homes across the country. This, he claimed as a major achievement of his administration in the last three years. But happenings in the country’s largest economy and richest state in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) will not support the president’s assertion, in terms of electricity accessibility by residents of Lagos State.

The clearest indicator of the incorrectness of the president’s assertion is the statistics showing that nearly all homes and business concerns rely more on generators to support the hours of electricity supply they get from private electric firms, now in charge of electric sale to consumers.

The singular factor establishing this finding is the discovery that the state is now generating more noise than ever and getting to epidemic proportion, even by official statistics. The situation is said to derive mainly from these devices for alternative power supply. The development is now turning hitherto peaceful and peaceable neighbours into sworn enemies as they flood the state’s anti-noise agency, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), with petitions against those allegedly disturbing others with their generators’ noise.

The Lagos State government receives an average of 100 petitions on generator and other noise pollution per week, it has been revealed.

Fashola factor

Interestingly, the anti-noise law, which is now being massively explored by residents of the state over noisy generators, popularly known as I-better-pass-my-neighbour, was made popularly by Buhari’s minister in charge of provision of electricity for Nigerians. Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, as governor of Lagos State, was the one whose administration notably enforced the law. Now, as power minister, his predecessor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has been trying to step up the enforcement of that law. Interestingly, except Fashola provides more electricity for Nigerians and residents of the state, Ambode may have a harder job in his enforcement drive, because the lack of adequate electricity would keep the residents seeking generators’ help and because of the cost implication of securing the generators with little noise nuisance, coupled with the much-derided “noisy” generators being affordable, the battle to contain such noise may be long-drawn-out.

Neighbours to the rescue?

If LASEPA and other environmental laws enforcers are overwhelmed despite their claims to the contrary, Lagosians appear to have resolved to take their health destiny in their own hands by designing different means of officially and unofficially enforcing the anti-noise law.

Perhaps the increase in population and the yet-to-be improved power sector have compelled nearly everybody to own one kind of generator or the other, but even some generator owners and users have taken it upon themselves to ensure sanity in their neighbourhoods.

Apart from filing petitions against “reckless” users with LASEPA and getting the agency to take actions against the accused, some communities are making ‘laws’ compelling rotational usage of generators by setting time limits for usage, forcing users to put the devices off at certain hours.

They are extending the ‘law’ to worship and business centres which use both the alternative power supply devices and outside broadcast system.

Apart from official statistics that show increase in complaints by the public, which observers described as “inaccurate,” visits by Saturday Tribune to neighbourhoods, both in the metropolis and hinterlands, revealed the use of a large number of generators of different sizes, depending on status of the residents with posh areas not excluded. For the upscale areas, sound-proof generators are commonplace but it was still observed that some homes with massive diesel-powered generators send much smoke into the air, thereby polluting the environment.

Online pricing showed that the cheapest of the 9KVA diesel sound-proof is N1.5 million, while 15KVA is N1.9 million.

Ilupeju peculiar mess

At the popular Palmgrove Estate, Ilupeju, noise from generators has become a rule rather than exception. Narrating his ordeal to Saturday Tribune, Mr Niyi Bello, a journalist with one of the leading newspapers in Nigeria, said the situation got to a point where some occupants of a building in the area appealed to their landlord to call a meeting where the use of generator on a daily basis would be agreed upon by all residents.

“I think it is high time a time frame was set by which every resident should put on and switch off their generators, especially in the night. For more than three months that power supply has become erratic within the vicinity, sleeping in the night has become a nightmare,” said Bello, who called on the appropriate authorities to wake up to their responsibility.

If the situation in Palmgroove Estate is pathetic, that of Shomolu, Bariga, Mushin, Badia and other neighbourhoods where face-me-I-face-you apartments are a common house-type, is incomprehensible.

We’re all guilty in Bariga –CDA leader

For instance, residents of Shofunwa Street, Iyana-Oworo, have been at the receiving end of unabated noise pollution.

“In our own case, everyone is guilty, because anytime there is power outage, which is a common experience, everyone puts on their generators. But where problem lies is the inability to control the time individuals should switch off. Besides, this is Ramadan period when Muslim faithful usually wake up in the night to either recite their religious book or engage in preaching with loudspeakers,” lamented a politician and member of the community development association (CDA), in Bariga, Mrs Ramota Hamzat.

Mrs Hamzat believed that the best approach to curtailing noise generation in every neighbourhood was to regulate the number of hours residents could switch on their generators whenever there is power outage.

ALSO READ: Noise pollution: Lagos bans live bands at restaurants, imposes N500,000 fine on defaulters

Shomolu showdown

However, this suggestion is creating problems in many places where the idea has been contemplated and execution attempted. For example, at a particular building on Abiodun Street in Shomolu, residents had been working with the idea until the commencement of the ongoing Ramadan period when some Islamic clerics kicked against such regulation, arguing that it deprived them of observing certain obligations to those who are fasting.

According to Alfa Tijani Yusuf, “there are certain obligations we need to render to the Muslim faithful in the night and they would be effectively communicated with the use of loudspeakers. So, we may find it difficult to abide by such regulations until the end of Ramadan.”

But when asked how those in communities where there is neither power supply nor access to generators are observing similar obligations, the cleric, in a fit of anger, walked away.

Celestial ‘groove’ in Palmgrove

Just last week, there was altercation between a media personality and members of the Celestial Church of Christ located in Palmgrove Estate over the use of loudspeaker during their weekly vigil, usually conducted with musical instruments and generators when there is power outage, with little regard for the midnight comfort of others in the area.

Things got to a head during one of the vigils when neighbours came out to confront the church leader.

“It got to a point when I told the Olusho (the head) that I would lodge formal complaints with the appropriate authority before they changed their mode of worship that night,” said the respondent, who declined mentioning his name. He added that the argument of that church leader was that the church existed in the area before the residential buildings.

Compromised leaders?

But most disturbing was the perceived lackadaisical attitude of most traditional rulers and opinion leaders in many of the neighbourhoods visited.

For instance, residents’ common allegation is that most of the community leaders, including traditional rulers, are benefiting from government largesse which includes gifts of generators, free fuel and financial benefits for maintenance of the devices.

“In most cases, state and local governments pay their NEPA (PHCN) bills and as such, they seldom show interest in the suffering of their subjects,” Comrade Kamal Adewole, an Ikorodu resident, told Saturday Tribune.

Another allegation that is as shocking is that the association of generator technicians bribe officials of PHCN to ensure power outage, area by area, across the metropolis.

“In fact, we leant that generator technicians, through their various units, do reach out to unscrupulous PHCN officials to ensure irregular power supply, area by area. This is to keep them in business,” said a source, who claimed to ply the same trade but that his moral and religious conviction would not allow him to partake in such “evil.”

The benefit to the technicians: the more the generators are used, the frequency of their repair and servicing.

Noise effects are debilitating –Medical expert

On the health implications of regular exposure to consistent elevated sound levels, Dr Lewis Hanson, a cardiologist, said: “Elevated workplace or environmental noise can cause hearing impairment, hypertension and ischemic heart disease.”

According to him, noise exposure has been known to induce tinnitus, hypertension, vasoconstriction and other adverse cardiovascular effects.

“Chronic noise exposure has been associated with sleep disturbances and increased incidence of diabetes. Besides, adverse cardiovascular effects occur from chronic exposure to noise due to the sympathetic nervous system’s inability to habituate,” Dr Hanson said, adding that sympathetic nervous system maintains lighter stages of sleep when the body is exposed to noise, which does not allow blood pressure to follow the normal rise and fall cycle of an undisturbed circadian rhythm.

Acoustics experts have warned that unless the government enforces laws that will prevent noise pollution, many individuals may become deaf. There are many individuals who suffer from aural disorders caused by noise pollution. This disorder apparently manifests in the damage of the auricle as an initial sign, contending that noise is one of the most dangerous and silent environmental pollution as its effects on human body system could lead to death.

However, mindful of the health hazards associated with noise, the Lagos State government has come down hard on some sources of noise pollution.

Specifically, the immediate past administration led by Fashola made conscious efforts to deal with the menace, a move that nearly set him on a collision course with religious organisations and hoteliers who believed that laws against noise were infringing on their freedom of worship and entrepreneurship liberty.

“Although it is not as if the present administration is condoning this social aberration, the fact is that we are just being mindful of the possible backlash,” said a senior environmental official who craved anonymity.

Citing the uproar trailing the newly-introduced law on Land Use Charge, the Lagos Cleaner Initiative (LCI), among others, the official reasoned that any attempt to act on any other sensitive issues for now might attract similar reactions that would paint the government in a bad light.

LASEPA isn’t docile, the official claimed. He cited the fact that more than 100 calls were received on a weekly basis, including countless text messages daily, over the menace of noise mostly emanating from generators, religious houses that use loudspeakers in residential areas, among others, claiming that the agency acts once reports are received.

Truly, recently, the agency shut down some places of worship after series of complaints from residents whose lives had been allegedly affected by ceaseless noise from the affected places. The state government said it became imperative to act because the problem persisted.

Past corrective efforts

The immediate past Managing Director of LASEPA, Mr Adebola Shabi, once disclosed that the environment was critical to the lives of the citizens and that there was the need to effect a reduction in the level of noise generated by churches, mosques, music centres and others because noise could be dangerous to human health as it breeds impaired hearing capability.

“We sealed off about 55 premises, because the last enforcement we carried out, 33 premises were sealed off. I gave approval for the closure of 22 premises later, making a total of 55 premises so sealed off.”

According to Shabi, noise pollution is a problem many are grappling with in Lagos, ranging from noise from generators to musical sound from record sellers, hooting from commercial bus operators and loud music from hawking vans, especially local herbs sellers, as well as loud noise from worship centres.

“But what make pollution from generators more dangerous is the fumes emanating from them, apart from noise,” said Shabi

Hold govt responsible –Epe resident

Another commentator, Mr Shuaib Alani, who resides in Epe, a Lagos suburb, also called on the government to speed up action in curbing the menace of noise pollution in the state. He noted that the low level of infrastructural provision in many developing countries like Nigeria is creating room for “survival of the fittest” where any enterprise capable of providing for the needs of the people is always pursued without its concomitant effects on the environment.

According to him, the majority of Nigerians are struggling to survive, thus giving little or no room for environmental consideration.

“It is as a result of the current economic situation that people, especially artisans such as hair dressers, welders, record sellers, barbers and others depend largely on the use of generators. And governments, which have failed to provide enabling environment for the well-being of citizens, would lack moral right to legislate on the use of alternative power supply, no matter how injurious the activities of these artisans are to the health of citizenry,” Alani said.

Observers believe that the move to reduce noise pollution, which the government has started, would only be sustained through the establishment, in the state’s Ministry of the Environment, of a strong monitoring team to ensure strict compliance with environmental laws.

‘Noisy’ productivity

Noise pollution is generally perceived as the hallmark of all developing and industrialising countries. It creates a situation where able-bodied men work in industries with heavy-duty machines and are exposed to a noise level above 80-90 decibels for over eight hours a day. But the situation is a bit different in Lagos. Much of the noise being generated doesn’t generate much productivity and the cheapest of what is seriously affecting their lives with little to show for it is SPG 950 with market value of N14,000.