A man living in Pembroke, Dean Camilleri, went on a hunger strike in September last year in protest at the noise pollution to which he was being subjected from amplified music coming from establishments in St George’s Bay. He finally had a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the matter who assured him it “would be tackled”.
But to no avail. Residents living in Pembroke and the surrounding area are still suffering what Camilleri has rightly called “mental torture”. This is not an exaggeration, as “white noise” and sleep deprivation are recognised as methods of torture which have been employed in Iraq, Northern Ireland and elsewhere.
Amplified music has continued to make his life and that of other residents a misery 10 months after his protest began. The noise has resulted in countless sleepless nights and this has directly affected his mental well-being.
A review by the Noise Abatement Society of Malta of the noise generated by St George’s Bay entertainment establishments recorded levels of noise at different times of the evening which were more than 33 per cent higher than those the World Health Organisation considered the absolute limit in residential areas.
So far as Camilleri and other residents in Pembroke – and no doubt Swieqi, Paceville, St Julian’s, St Paul’s Bay, Buġibba and the myriad other places in Malta where places of summer entertainment are rife – it is “tantamount to mental torture”.
The cacophony of noise that is Malta today is undermining our quality of life. This is a densely populated and incredibly noisy country. Needless use of car horns and souped-up vehicles on the road, blaring radios, open-air discos, rowdy neighbours – everywhere one is assailed by noise, never more so than in the summer months when our village festas and the utterly pointless petards (murtali) rend the air.
About eight years ago, the eminent former chief justice, Vincent Degaetano, made a scathing judgment about the inconvenience caused by petards. He described the “savage bombardment and the senseless explosions” that accompany or precede fireworks displays during the festas as “causing great inconvenience, terrifying pets and children as well as the not so young, and disturbed people who were ill or who could not move away from the area where fireworks were being let off”.
But what Degaetano’s comments also exposed is that although there are laws in Malta forbidding noise pollution, there are none regulating the worst noise offender – murtali. Simply put, what the former chief justice highlighted is that if we play music at full volume at 2am, or wield a jackhammer by day at higher decibel levels than those laid down, we can be prosecuted for causing noise pollution. But if we set off large petards throughout the months of May, June, July, August, September and October, we would not be.
For reasons best known to themselves, our legislators have omitted to ensure – whether deliberately or not – that our noise pollution legislation covers the worst offenders in our land: the makers and users of murtali. A cynic might think that this is another instance of legislators kow-towing to a special interest group, the fireworks enthusiasts.
With our neighbours practically on top of us, we need more than ever the traditional codes of civility that preserve mutual respect by keeping noise down
Whether or not such a conclusion is justified is immaterial. There is a gaping loop-hole in our law. As the marvellous Santa Maria festas will surely remind us next week, the noise pollution engendered by petards is no longer acceptable and should be brought strictly under control.
The difficulty of finding quiet places in Malta has always been a problem. Obtrusive noise is everywhere. But it is increasingly exacerbated in a society that appears not to appreciate the need for tranquillity. Malta is getting noisier. Our ears, despite the perhaps merciful loss of hearing with age, are permanently embattled.
Unwanted noise is an under-recognised health problem for it can raise blood pressure and depress the immune system. It has become a torture to those of us who like the privacy of our own heads and would rather not suffer invasions of our aural space by the incontinently tumultuous.
Many adults appear to have no compunction in broadcasting their favourite pieces of music to everybody within earshot. It is annoying enough when people use their phones to talk into without moderating their voices. Yet phone calls, however irksome to those unwillingly brought within their orbit, do not usually last for more than a few minutes.
It isn’t only mobile phones. Last week I was walking along the long stretch of beautiful promenade leading down from Ħaġar Qim towards the Blue Grotto when I heard distant music. It had a tinny sound, as though being relayed from the inside of a can. It got nearer. Eventually, another walker overtook me, his portable device in his hand, playing favourite tracks. There was nothing for it but for me to wait until he had passed.
I have got used to people apparently talking to themselves, in loud voices, because they have their phones hands-free. They may not be aware of the volume at which they are jabbering. But for selfish individuals to impose their choice of entertainment on those around them – and to do so without qualm – is something new.
Noise from construction has become omnipresent, due to the number of owners (with the connivance of the Planning Authority) who have found ways of developing their properties from simple, traditional and attractive single family units to soulless multi-occupancy blocks of flats. With our neighbours practically on top of us, we need more than ever the traditional codes of civility that preserve mutual respect by keeping noise down.
Today, I have engaged in a general rant about increasing noise pollution in Malta. Some of it is an inevitable consequence of modern life. But the two worst offenders in Malta are fully within the government’s gift to control. It is utterly unacceptable for people like Camilleri and others living in Pembroke – and elsewhere in Malta close to places of entertainment – to be subjected to levels of noise which exceed legally laid down limits. The law must be applied and if necessary the establishments should be shut down.
As to the vexed issue of murtali, they may be a part of our cultural tradition but – like hunting – they too should be brought within the scope of the law. The noise pollution inflicted by petards is no longer acceptable – if it ever was – and should be brought strictly under control according to size and type.