Whenever I write about noise pollution, I always think twice before doing so for the simple reason that the effect it usually has on getting the Nationalist government to do something about it is nil. How many Maltese citizens have publicly complained about the problem of noise pollution in our country but, alas, to no avail! To add insult to injury, we are now informed about the Mepa approval of the Freeport extension project, which will significantly increase noise pollution to the detriment of the residents of Birżebbuġa.

It is a shame that, in 2010, despite the European Union's Noise Directive, noise pollution impinges on the daily existence of each and every Maltese citizen. It is a shame that we still lack any adequate noise pollution legislation despite having been a member of the EU since 2004, almost six years ago. To be fair, one has to admit that other EU member-countries also have big problems in tackling noise pollution. In fact, the World Health Organisation states that traffic noise alone is harming the health of almost every third European. Furthermore, one in five Europeans is regularly exposed to sound levels at night that could significantly damage health.

Still, I feel there is a lot that could be done both by the government as well as by ordinary citizens to limit the amount of noise pollution. For example, I am amazed at the amount of tolerance shown towards drivers who pollute our streets with loud music emanating from their car stereos. This has become a daily phenomenon and, yet, we are in the year 2010 and it still occurs. What reduces our country to the laughable level of a Banana Republic is the fact that, then, one often sees a citizen being booked for parking his/her car just outside the white lines while the mobile discos drive through our streets and squares with almost total impunity!

Need I also mention the hawkers and gas-cylinder distributors who seem to enjoy the freedom of our cities, towns and villages to blow the horns of their vehicles at their pleasure to announce their arrival?

Another source of noise pollution, which the authorities can do something about, are those garages whose sole use is supposed to be the garaging of the owner's car/s and which are instead being used for work that creates a lot of noise in what are purely residential areas. How many such garages are there which are being illegally used by mechanics, panel beaters, spray painters and carpenters?

Several people are guilty of creating new types of noise pollution. For instance, it is becoming increasingly common, due to its never being sanctioned by the competent authorities, to blow one's horn to announce one's arrival to somebody inside a building. Are such selfish people aware of the sort of nuisance and disturbance they are causing the residents in the neighbourhood?

A friend of mine who has very young children recently spoke to me about the ordeal he and his family have to go through every weekend because of a young man who picks up his girlfriend at around midnight and blows his horn five or six times to announce his arrival. If the young lady is still not ready, the young driver proceeds to blow his horn another five or six times to hurry her up because he is waiting, oblivious to the fact that he is waking up half the neighbourhood in the process!

I could go on and on, mentioning such things as the noisy festa petards, the late-night loud music from discos, bars and restaurants, cars with faulty silencers, television sets and radios switched on at full volume, and, of course, that characteristic of some Maltese, speaking at the top of one's voice as if one wants everybody to hear what one is saying!

Some types of noise pollution are a result of technological advances and are difficult to control, like, say, the noise produced by aircraft, but others, like the ones I have mentioned, can be greatly limited in their incidence, given some effort from the government and from all citizens.

At the end of the day, I believe that the answer to solving the problem of noise pollution lies in a combination of firm action by the authorities to control abuse and an educational campaign to make citizens aware of their duty to avoid causing noise pollution. Making an example of those who disturb the peace of our daily lives would have a salutary effect on the situation.

Likewise, inculcating in schoolchildren the concept that causing unnecessary noise is selfish and anti-social will go a long way towards solving the problem in the future.