Check excessive noise by churches

Kumasi, April 18, GNA - A passionate appeal has been made to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to seriously consider extending its control and checks on excessive noise making to the churches as well.

Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, Immediate Past President of Youth in Action, a body of youth groupings, said some churches, just like the mines, industries, vehicles and discotheques, create a lot of excessive noise and for that matter, need to equally be checked.

Odeneho Appiah made the appeal when he spoke on the topic, "role of the church in enhancing national peace", at a day's seminar, organised by the Kwadaso Christian fellowship at Kwadaso, a suburb of Kumasi on Saturday.

The seminar was designed to instil in membership of the fellowship, skills that could make their contribution to evangelism and community development more effective. Odeneho Appiah stressed, "the noise being made by some churches has now become a nuisance and a great source of worry to many people, hence the need for the appropriate authorities to bring them to order." He however, acknowledged that churches engaged in such noise making, did so because of their ignorance of the existence of the Act that makes it illegal to make excessive noise.

Odeneho Appiah also deplored the current practice, whereby residential accommodation were being converted into churches, and the situation where churches were also constructed at sites earmarked for residential facilities only.

He entreated the District Assemblies and City Authorities to enforce to the letter, regulations pertaining to the location of buildings, so as to ensure that churches are constructed at the right sites.

Pastor Martin Osei, Pastor in-charge of Evangelism of the Kwadaso Christian fellowship said, just as Christians commit themselves to their obligations towards the church, so do they owe it a moral and civic duty to honour their tax obligations to the state too.