Lisbon urges Government to require ANA anti-noise work at Humberto Delgado Airport – Observer
This Monday, the Lisbon City Council unanimously imposed a PCP motion to urge the Government to request ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal to carry out anti-noise work at Humberto Delgado Airport.
“The Humberto Delgado Airport in its current location has become an unbearable burden; the prevention of noise and the control of sound and respiratory consumption, with a view to safeguarding human health and the well-being of populations, thus constitutes a fundamental task of the State”, reads the motion.
In this context, the Lisbon city council wants “ANA to buy, in a short period of time, with its obligations foreseen in the noise action plan of Humberto Delgado Airport, approved by the APA [Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente]with regard to measures to reduce the exposure of those received, carrying out soundproofing works in buildings directly served by aircraft noise”.
At the proposal of PCP councillors, João Ferreira and Ana Jarra, the motion “Airport Humberto Delgado: Require ANA to carry out anti-noise works in Lisbon” was presented and voted on this Monday in a private meeting of the municipal executive.
The feasibility of this initiative coincided with the eve of a meeting that the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD), will have with the Airport Monitoring Committee, scheduled for Tuesday, regarding the PCP, hoping that the social mayor -democrat “take the opportunity to make this movement known”.
According to the communists, the noise action plan for Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon, was presented by the ANA for the period 2018-2023 and received approval from the APA, in 2019, which “was granted with the condition of being a set of of actions, among them, the implementation of the acoustic insulation program, in order to minimize the impacts on the city and in particular on the areas located close to the airport”.
The action states that the interventions were scheduled to be implemented in two phases, between 2021 and 2023, through a program under the responsibility of ANA, for the acoustic insulation of the buildings most inhabited by the noise of airplanes in the capital, but that “did not start”, with soundproofing works to be carried out in directly institutional buildings, houses or apartments with housing permits, hospitals, schools and universities.
The noise reduction plans and action plans result from the diagnosis by the competent authorities, through municipal noise maps and strategic noise maps, which present measures to reduce the population’s exposure to noise.
“ANA did not comply with the planned investment, under the noise plan, which had the objective of reducing the exposure of intakes, in particular those who live or work, in areas located next to the landing or take-off corridors of aircraft, through of interventions at the level of window frames and facades of the most exposed buildings, as foreseen in the plan approved by the APA”, indicates the motion.
In the document, the PCP states that noise is a serious source of disruption to people’s quality of life, mainly night noise, and “the noise from landings and takeoffs of planes at Humberto Delgado Airport causes numerous floods and serious inconvenience to the population of the city of Lisbon and neighboring municipalities”.
As the consequences of airport noise in isolated areas, the action pointed to sleep disturbances, increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and reduced children’s learning capacity, producing serious effects on the health and quality of life of citizens.