The Prague Post Online: News: Country could face noise penalties

November 23rd, 2008

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Country could face noise penalties

Maps indicating pollution levels not up to EU standards

July 9th, 2008 issue

By Curtis M. Wong

Staff writer

The country could face financial penalties after releasing a series of noise pollution maps of the largest cities which allegedly do not meet European Union requirements.

Civic association officials say the maps were inadequately produced because they include smaller sections of large cities, including Prague, Brno and Ostrava, than the EU requires. In the case of Prague, noise pollution was mapped only in central areas, and did not include the ring of suburban regions.

“The main problem with the noise maps is that they cover significantly smaller areas than what EU regulations [stipulate],” said Michal Bernard, an attorney representing the Environmental Legal Service organization based in Tábor, south Bohemia. The Prague map, he added, covers an area one-third smaller than what is required by law.

The maps were produced by the Health Ministry and include both geographic and demographic information, based on calculations carried out by EU-approved computer programs used for noise pollution mapping. Several sources concluded the research, including the Czech Rail Association and the Czech Road and Highways Association. Noise pollution was defined as anything above 70 sound decibels during the day and 60 at night, and road traffic was blamed as the biggest contribution.

The Environmental Legal Service organization plans to lodge a formal complaint with the European Commission within the next two weeks, Bernard said. If the EC accepts the complaint, it could launch proceedings against the Czech Republic or file a lawsuit at the European Court in Luxembourg, which could impose a fine. Though he did not speculate on a financial figure, Bernard said the fine could increase in relation to the length of time that the country breached the law.

Health Ministry officials refuted the organization’s claim, saying the error was simply the result of vague specifications regarding the size of the municipal areas that the maps needed to include.

“The Czech Republic has met all of the requirements that were outlined in the EC’s regulations,” said Michael Vít, deputy health minister. “The only problem that occurred during the process of measuring the noise levels was that the selection procedure for the compilers of the maps, due to timing reasons, had to take place before the Regional Development Ministry released the directives defining the particular agglomerations. As a result, in the first stage of the noise mapping the area to be measured was smaller than stated in the directives.”

Vít added that officials are planning to correct the error by clearly specifying the area of a city agglomeration in a new ministry-issued regulation. In addition, the maps themselves will be updated during a second round of mapping, he said.

The country is expected to complete its research and formal action plans by mid-July, Bernard said. However, it is unrealistic to expect the additional mapping would be completed by then. A second round of measurements would take an additional two to three years to complete, with finalized data not being available until 2012. By then, the Czech Republic could face up to five years of financial penalties.

However, Health Ministry officials say this is the first time strategic noise pollution mapping was carried out across the entire EU, and that other countries have encountered similar problems.

“Some nations still haven’t presented their complete findings to the EU,” Vít said. “In the process, many varied problems have occurred, which the EU will [help to] solve by updating the recommendations they have made for the noise mapping. The Czech Republic has supplied all necessary data in accordance with the EU.”

Noise pollution is hardly a new problem in the Czech Republic, although officials say levels are comparable to those found in neighboring countries such as Germany and Austria.

Authorities speculate that more than 300,000 people nationwide are exposed to noise pollution on a daily basis, with 120,000 in the capital alone. In some smaller Czech cities, noise pollution affects more than half the total population regularly.

“The biggest problem is the noise caused by road traffic, which is an issue for any bigger city these days,” Vít said. “It’s caused by the major increase of not only personal but particularly commercial transport. It’s not possible to state where particularly the problem is the greatest; the problem is everywhere where there is traffic overload.”

Reader's comments:

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[19:06 05/10/2008] : there's no answer for this question and the question is that which countries face noise pollution?please do add this answer!!!!!

bisma wahab
pakistan

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