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Noise Pollution is an unwanted or disturbing sound which can interfere with normal activities for humans such as sleeping, conversations, communication or disrupt one's quality of life.
Noise Pollution can come from many sources but I will narrow mine to just three sources - noise from a mosque, a church and a school.
I relocated to Lagos to be with my Husband after we got married. Our residential apartment is surrounded by a a local nursery school, a church and a mosque, the noises from these three (3) institutions can be very unbearable.
Noise From The Mosque.
In the morning I do not need to set an alarm to wake me up because the Muslims do that with their morning prayers, so I know its 5.00 am. They also have other times devoted for prayers, sometimes I wonder if it is a round the clock prayer.
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Noise from The School
The children resume for school as early as 6.30am, they start running up and down their staircase (as you can see in the picture above if you look closely) and engage in discussions, my room window is facing their classrooms so I hear every detail of their conversations. The morning assembly usually begins by 7.50 am, they start with their morning devotion songs, beating bands alongside - you know how children shout when singing, chorusing together. Afterwards they match to their classrooms and start recitations of their nursery rhymes and multiplication tables (If you know how kpako children shout you will understand where I am coming from because there are other polished schools with Ajebutter children in my street, when I pass by such schools I can barely hear a sound, I do not know how they do it). The teachers even make things worse, they encourage the children to shout saying they are not hearing their voices, the children then start shouting on top of their voices. The most annoying part is that Parents allow their children in Nursery and Primary schools to stay in school for as long as 5.00 pm, because they also want their freedom from the noise and disturbance of their children, thereby leaving me with no choice but to endure the noise from morning until evening.
Noise From The Church.
The school classrooms are often used by a religious group for their weekly services, they are even worse than the children (in terms of noise) because they use a public address system which makes it difficult to have a low key conversation and communication in my house, it is as though we were also attending the service.
On Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays are service days for another set of religious group (a white garment church), we share the same close (as seen in the picture above, the church has been in existence for years, that is why the structure looks so old). They use a public address system, when their service is on, their speakers are louder than the church at the school so it becomes a competition and we are the victims. They usually hold a one week program which spans all through the night until the early hours of the day, you can imagine how difficult it will be to sleep at night.
According to the World Health Organisation, "excessive noise seriously harms human health and interfere with people's daily activities at work, at home and during leisure time. It can disturb sleep, cause cardiovascular and psycho-physiological effects, cause heart attacks, reduce performance and provoke annoyance responses and changes in social behavior".
The only time I have a little break from the noise at the school is when schools are on holidays. As for the churches and the Muslim prayers, it is a continuous routine, there is no freedom from noise for me I just have to endure, since it is a part of "my daily trauma". It is a pity that we had to build a house amidst these institutions, I Pray God blesses us so that we can be buoyant enough to build another house in a less noisy environment and put the present apartment on rent. Can I get an Amen please!? Amen!
I woke up today as a result of the noise from the Muslim prayers and the school and so I decided to share this post in an angry mood. Lol.