In an effort to curb the noise nuisance problem, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday presented the Guyana Police Force (GPF) with twenty-five noise meters and ranks are currently being trained to use the equipment.
The EPA’s Legal Officer Shareefah Parks yesterday handed over the REED R8080 data logging sound level meters to Commissioner of Police (ag), Clifton Hicken during a ceremony at the Officer’s Training Centre, Eve Leary.
In a press release issued yesterday, the GPF said that Hicken noted that the meters will aid the force in noise management and complaints of noise nuisance.
“Members of the public can look out for the Guyana Police Force’s proactive arrangement in terms of dealing with noise pollution, which is expected to bring some degree of relief,” Hicken said, according to the statement.
He further stated “as we develop our partnership with the wider stakeholders, we are going to ensure that we focus on noise pollution in a constructive way, and this will be done in conjunction with the EPA.”
Meanwhile, the statement said that Parks in her brief remarks pointed out that the EPA looks forward to the GPF’s continued support and effective management of noise management.
According to the statement, police officers from across the country are currently benefiting from training during which they will be taught how to use the noise meters. The training is being conducted by the EPA.
The REED R8080 Data logging sound level meter has a quick responding triple range sound level meter with a backlit display, analog bargraph and built-in memory to data log up to 64,000 points.
It also has the ability to record samples on internal memory and keep track of registered readings with a time and date stamp.
The GPF said that calibration is an “essential” part of the maintenance and will be conducted every three months.
On May 16, 2022, the GPF and EPA had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to work on noise nuisance.
The agreement is a collaboration between the EPA and the Police in the field of training and enforcement of noise management and also to assist the EPA in mitigating noise nuisance.
In recent years, the police and the EPA have come under enormous pressure to do something about noise nuisance.
A number of senior officials from both the EPA and GPF including Deputy Commissioner Administration (ag) Calvin Brutus; Deputy Commissioner Law Enforcement (ag) Wendell Blanhum; Head of Special Branch, Errol Watts; Senior Environmental Officer and Head of Complaints, Surjpaul Singh; Senior Environmental Officer, Candacie Brower-Thompson, Senior Environmental Officer, Tashana Redmond and Environmental Officer Tethram Persaud were also present at the handing over ceremony yesterday.
