A Review of Noise Pollution Policies in the Arab World

Abstract

This paper aims to study the current legislation in the Arab world regarding noise pollution and to compare its laws, in a second step, with those of the European Union to identify the differences and similarities between these two groups of countries' policies. The methodology of this study was based mainly on analytical and comparative approaches to process the data collected from 31 legislation texts from 22 Arab countries. The data were obtained primarily from the official and governmental websites of the various ministries and state institutions concerned with environmental laws, using Arabic and second-language web searches in each country. This study shows that legislators in the investigated countries are relatively engaged in addressing environmental issues, especially noise pollution. Except for Somalia, all Arab League member countries have developed laws and regulations on noise pollution. However, there are no guidelines on noise measurement except in Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. As well, the governments of these countries still need to develop guidelines for noise mapping. Therefore, it is believed that the legislation in these countries needs to be revised and stronger. In addition, no trace of the soundscape subject has been highlighted in the Arabic legislative texts. The comparative analysis indicates that most Arab laws do not comply with the international standards established by the European Union governments. According to this study, revising and updating Arab laws is necessary, and action strategies must be implemented to achieve sustainability goals.