"You can change friends, not neighbours," goes an adage that best describes the relation between two neighbours. The point is that you have to bear with each other and the choices are limited. If the neighbours are good, your life will become blissful and if not, then you are doomed. And, one cannot change one’s residence frequently.

The list of nuisances that problematic neighbours can cause may be long but the one experienced too often is the noise and disturbance caused by construction work, especially if it continues late into night.

It is a common complaint of people in localities where houses are under construction, being repaired or going through modifications to meet households’ need for additional space.

There are times when people are woken up right in the dead of the night, by the deafening sounds of trucks loading or offloading concrete and/or steel. Often, this loading/offloading exercise goes on for hours.

The most common excuse the owners of these houses and the contractors have is that trucks and trolleys carrying construction material and rubble are not allowed to enter the city premises during day time. So they have no choice but to utilise the night time for the purpose.

Ahmed Raza Qadri, a resident of Gujjarpura Housing Scheme, Lahore, contests this logic. He says that the situation arises due to neglect on the part of the town authorities and also due to the stubborn attitude of people.

He says that offloading sand, gravel, pebbles etc takes only a few minutes as trucks use pressurised jacks for the purpose. In fact, he adds, the people use this pretext to continue with construction work late into night.

He recalls how he had a dispute with a house owner who had employed labour at night to demolish the upper story. This, he says, suited him as the labourers charge less for working late at night, after an 8-hour working day.

According to Qadri, the house owner had also placed the trolley next to the structure being demolished in such a way that rubble fell into it. This saved him time and expenses that he would otherwise incur had he employed labour to lift the rubble and throw it into the trolley.

Another major reason for construction work at night, as identified by Qadri, is that people find it easy to bypass building restrictions and minimise the threat of being caught. For example, "people dig basements at night time, split roads to lay pipelines in the dark and dispose off water into the surroundings when there is nobody to notice [these violations].

"Instead of asking the supplier to offload the huge construction material at the same time, some people allow him to use one truck to make multiple journeys throughout the night. So, the truck downloads material and returns to the sale point to bring more material. This practice continues till dawn."

While Qadri narrates his ordeal of dealing with a problematic situation in neighbourhood, Mudassar Butt, a trader on Beadon Rd, has a pleasant experience to share. He says that his neighbour once wanted to construct the upper story of his house. "What he did was he approached me and shared the plan and the schedule of construction work. When I told him that my family shall be moving to my in-laws’ during summer vacation he delayed his plan till that time and waited for us to move."

Butt says he knows there are certain restrictions imposed by the town administration and the traffic police on the entry of heavy vehicles during the day in order to avoid congestion on the roads. But, "there are ways to make the best use of this time and avoid causing nuisance to the people living in the vicinity."

Luckily for Mudassar Butt, he lives in a planned and gated housing society, and the residents have to follow the construction bylaws devised by the management. "Those who may be affected due to construction work are intimated well in advance. Besides, the estimated duration of construction work is shared with them and they are sounded out on their concerns and a workable arrangement is made.

"The best way to minimise construction related noise is to finish most work during day time or, if there is an unavoidable need to continue it into the night, to install sound barriers such as tents, plywood walls etc. Instead of throwing rubble from a height they should remove it with the help of labourers even if that costs a bit."

A Gulberg Town official insists action is taken against those causing nuisance to their neighbours and the people are charged for using streets to stock construction material. But on most occasions, these people get away with violations as the locals intervene and hush up the matter. Even if someone files a complaint, he is pressurised to take back the application and solve the matter amicably.

The official says the elected representatives and political workers also use their clout and stop the concerned staff from taking punitive action. "People are not questioned for installing tents in the middle of the main roads, let alone continuing with the construction work at night."

Sardar Asif Ali Sial, a leading environmental lawyer, says there are different (environmental) standards for acceptable noise levels during day and night times. The required level for the night is far lower than that for the day as the objective is to help people benefit from sound sleep.

He says those creating noise above the accepted levels can be proceeded against just on the pattern in which people using pressure horns are dealt with.

Sial says sleep deprivation can be very harmful for people’s health, especially those suffering from serious ailments. The Law of Torts and the Easement Act prescribe remedies in such cases but unfortunately these are the least invoked laws.

He adds that such elements can be proceeded against under the legal provisions regarding the removal of public nuisances under section 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1898. It empowers the District Magistrate to take action if he feels "that the conduct of any trade or occupation, or the keeping of any goods or merchandise, is injurious to the health or physical comfort of the community, and that in consequence such trade or occupation should be prohibited or regulated or such goods or merchandise should be removed or the keeping thereof regulated, or "that the construction of any building, or the disposal of any substance, as likely to occasion conflagration or explosion, should be prevented or stopped."