The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it is taking steps to regulate noise pollution by collaborating with Members of Parliament and other government agencies across the country.

The Agency in the past week, embarked on a monitoring and enforcement exercise across the country to sensitize the public and enforce regulations on noise pollution throughout the festive season.

The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu in an interview with Citi News, underscored the importance of the exercise which he said also formed part of a mapping initiative to determine which areas are defaulting on the country’s noise pollution regulations and how to better curtail such.

“We are going to use this year’s exercise to do a map out and to also help us with our strategy and we are going to do this by intensifying the monitoring system and once we are sure it is working and it is effective, we will rely on it.”

Mr. Kokofu said the Agency will be working closely with other stakeholders such as the media and the various MMDAs across the country to ensure the strategy works.

“We are going to use the media as a carrier of our message and also Members of Parliament being brought on board because they are in the constituencies and closer to their people.

“We are also going to strengthen our collaboration with the various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies because they have provisions in their by-laws against noise pollution and that will help us a lot in this exercise.”

Per the Ghana Standards Protection Requirements for Ambiance Noise Control Code GS122 (2018), the permissible noise level within commercial areas should be 75 decibels during the day and 65 decibels during the night while areas with residential, trading and light industrial activities maintain 60 decibels during the day and 65 decibels during the night.