Reverend Doctor Joseph K.K. Baisie, Assemblies of God, Greater Accra East Regional Superintendent, has pleaded with all churches in the country to watch the level of noise they make during service.
Rev. Dr. Baisie, speaking at the first Regional Council Meeting, stated that, “I make a solemn plea to all churches to take a critical look at noise making”.
He noted that modern trends and changes in societal preferences had put a demand on changing the way churches dealt with noise pollution in their localities.
He suggested that churches must work at reducing the noise they make drastically while considering sound-proofing their auditoriums if their resources would allow.
The reverend minister also urged government and district assemblies and traditional leaders to allocate places in communities for churches and religious buildings to avoid conflict with residents.
He advised residents not to take the law into their hands by attacking churches in their localities for perceived noise making and disturbances in their vicinities.
Two churches at Haatso in the Greater Accra Region were recently ordered by an Accra High Court to pay damages of GH¢40,000.00 to two residents of the area for excessive noise making and for being a nuisance to the community.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is said to have found that the noise level by the churches ranged between a minimum of 76 decible and maximum of 86 decible which was way above the permissible daytime noise level of 55 decible for residential areas.
Source: GNA