CityLab Daily: Can No-Honking Days Quiet Mumbai’s Cacophony
Also today: Why NYC’s child care centers are closing, and Bangladesh’s capital gets its first mass-transit rail.
An elevated highway known as the JJ Flyover was the loudest place in Mumbai documented by the Awaaz Foundation.
Photographer: Catherine Davison /BloombergThe fast-growing city of Mumbai is one of the loudest in the world, with constant noise blaring from construction, traffic and crowded streets. Sumaira Abdulali, founder of the Awaaz Foundation (awaaz means “noise” in Hindi), has been campaigning to lower the volume in India’s financial capital, winning dozens of public-interest actions in recent years. That includes no-honking days, and a blanket ban on loudspeakers near schools, hospitals, courts and houses of worship.
But the battle against noise has become increasingly fraught as activists confront powerful interests who consider it an inevitable byproduct of economic growth and officials who ignore the rules. The World Health Organization warns that sustained exposure to noise pollution is a top environmental threat to humans, and can affect not only hearing but also brain and heart health, contributor Catherine Davison reports today in Businessweek: No-Honking Days and Noise Barriers Aim to Quell Mumbai’s Cacophony