KCCA to issue guidelines on bar, church noise

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is going to issue guidelines to regulate noise pollution emanating from the various entertainment places and churches, located along Acacia Avenue and Windsor Crescent in Kololo.

David Serukka, the Director Public Health and Environment, KCCA, said that the guidelines will provide a summation of the National Environment (Noise Standards and Control Regulations, 2003) and will spell out the opening and closing time for bars, clubs and churches.

"KCCA pledges to do what it is supposed to do. I cannot promise you that we shall do it today or tomorrow, but as agreed, we are going to issue guidelines to these bars such that when we find them breaking any rule, they will be persecuted," he said.

Serukka was responding to a petition from the Kololo Neighborhood Watch, an association formed by residents of Kololo, regarding the noise from the clubs, bars and churches that do not have sound proofs.

The petition was presented on Thursday where the residents including their chairpersons had converged. It was against some of the bars, clubs and churches around Kololo, including, De Wink, Atmosphere, Big Mike, Casablanca, Yasigi Beer Garden, the lawns, 206 and Christ Discipleship Ministries. It is also against Kabojja junior school.

According to Tim Kruetter, who presented the petition, the noise from the bars and revelers who flock them has turned their nights into nightmares.

He said that he has residential and commercial properties around Acacia Avenue and near atmosphere, which are normally occupied by Non-Governmental Organizations and international donors, as offices, but due to the too much noise emitted by the night club, his customers have abandoned the premises.

"We even had to abandon our residential house because the noise made it impossible for us to have a peaceful habitation of it. We have tried to talk to the management of these clubs but they do not care, all they care about is making money," he said.

He said that even when they tried to bring the problem to KCCA's notice, they have never responded.

Jason and Lee-Ann Roussos, proprietors of Athina Club, said that the noise from a construction site at Kabojja, which is done trans-night, has disturbed the sleep of their customers, forcing them to abandon the guest house in the middle of the night.

"What we want is to be able to sleep at night, wake up as normal people and be able to go to work," Lee-Ann said. They said that the clubs operate beyond the permissible noise level till 4am.

According to Serukka, maximum permissible noise levels for establishments of entertainment, places of worship and construction sites in residential areas are 60dB during day and 40dB at night, commercial places is 75dB daytime and 50dB at night while industrials areas is 85dB during day and 65dB during night.

"Most of the areas visited by the team are located in a mixed residential and commercial areas and the permissible level for such areas lies within 45dB. Kololo is not gazetted as a residential area, it is mixed but we have a team that comes around regularly to monitor the noise levels," he said.

In their petition, the residents wanted KCCA to stop issuing operating licenses to clubs and bars that are not fully sound proofed.

The proprietors and the managers of the bars, who were present at the meeting, said that they were ready to cooperate with KCCA and the residents to ensure that there is peaceful coexistence. They gave their phone numbers to their neighbors such that incase of any inconveniences, they can be contacted directly.

 
"Most of our music stops at midnight. We have tried to comply with KCCA, we even stopped a live band that we used to have. We are ready to cooperate such that peace can prevail," said Gediyon Yasigi, owner Yasigi Beer Garden.

Serukka said that they are going to discuss and agree on whether to direct each of the bars to buy a noise meter such that the owners of the entertainment places can easily monitor their noise levels.